Technical problems with A320?
 

What kind of technical problems is "common" on the A320?

People keep breaking the tray table. Thats a real bu&&er! :=

Yes I agree whole heartedly, the tray table is a common and painful tech problem....especially when it is ALWAYS the F/O's table that has been removed (...I think they are interchangable.....).

Seriously though, I'm beginning to think that MTBF (Mean time between failures) on some components are accurate to the point that several similar components fail at once across the fleet. At the mo, we have a few SEC's (Spoiler/Elevator Computers) failed. Thats pretty common and the flavour of the month I think. Not a show stopper though......

It wouldn't be if people looked after them a bit better, pull it out gently, open it carefully and stow it the same way and it will last forever. Same goes for the sun visors which various of my colleagues seem unable to use without breaking.

.......yup, sun visors, sun blinds, pen holders, cap pegs, tables. People are more careful with their cars than they are with the aircraft.

Folk should also read Bul 811/1.

Cheers,
mcdhu

Taxi lamp lenses - for some obscure reason!

Yep, agreed ... thats obscure :ok:

FCU pushbutton caps, you only have to touch them lightly you know, not stab at them with your long hard nails, a broken one of these means the whole FCU needs changing.. big money $$$

A flavour of some of our more regular faults.
Pack Regul Fault, Sec faults, inop IDGs, inop APUs, RA faults.

I have a solution for all of ya

BUY BOEING

Simjock came up with a good point......the fact that aircraft seem to be engineered so that a simple broken button results in a whole new EXPENSIVE item, such as FCU as he stated. Another on the airbus is the ice detector light, which fails quite a lot. Apparently the whole screen has to be practically removed so an engineer told me the other week - a real long and arduous task I'm sure. Obvious answer is leave it after it's broke, and fall back on the good old torch to check for ice at night........;)

We look after a mixed fleet of boeings and airbuses, mainly 320/1 /757/767 and theres not a lot between them TBH, both have there bad points of course, the 320 i would say if there is a weak area its the air con/ bleed system, we get a bit of trouble with sensors, flow valves, bleed valves, etc also flight control computers can give a few problems, however on the whole there good reliable aircraft, and quite user friendly from a engineers perspective

He was exaggerating ever so slightly. If it's the lamp it takes about 2 minutes , if the whole assembly needs doing it takes about an hour max.
Simple and easy job unlike some others on the mini 'bus I could mention.

As for failures - we seem to have a whole load of RTL failures for some reason.

Rad Alts on 321s. But when investigated it is usually coffee and red wine coating the aerials which has been dumped in the forward galley sinks exiting the forward drain mast. Doesn't happen on the 320s.

We have some ten year old aircraft, bleed and pack related, many altitude switches for lavs and center arm rest problems, new Airbuses, tire pressure indicators, not too much else.
ACMS, no thanks, enjoy the clean uncomplicated flight deck, lots of room. :ok:

ACP mic buttons breaking/cracking.... :D

The ACP mic buttons get some abuse because of the not-uncommon stick-top PTT switch failures. Once it fails, I've found that the onside ACP switch isn't going to be too far behind.

Everyone here is pretty well spot-on with their observations.

hydraulic leak from main landing gear is common problem and we have to rectify every after 2 days

I hate Airbus pilots. Why should they have the luxury of being able to eat off a table. And oh to be able to cross your legs! I would give anything. It's just not fair.
Americans are big. Why did they make the Boeing flightdeck so small? Is it cos we's poorer and don't need so much space for wallets?

I'll agree with Smudge, the most problems we have are fluctuating bleed with the ever so common pfr message of prv/senselines. Other than that, as long as they are treated with care they are quite 'engineer friendly'. :ok: