A320 maintenance status
 

Hello folks,

Just being curious about them. I know that we have to take down the bleed status into the tech logbook after shutdown the engines. What are the others for and any nice rule of thumb for them?

Thanks

Hi,

As you know the AIR BLEED maintenance message is the only item that has a dispatch condition and therefore a troubleshooting must be undertaken before the next flight. For all the other maintenance messages a dispatch is granted without condition (unless your airline MEL policy is more restrictive on that matter) provided that the message is cleared within its repair interval (C or D). As the airplane must undergo a daily check where these issues can be taken care of, I do not see any reason to write in the tech log any other item other than the AIR BLEED for the reason stated above.

Operators' policies and procedures seem to differ significantly. If you read the OEM documentation strictly, it seems Airbus want you to treat it like a regular MEL item.

FCOM PRO-NOR-SOP-22-A
MMEL*
regards, FD.

*: not really sure if this is the 100% verbatim copy of MMEL, may had been edited by the operator.

It's certainly not a memory item, ours used to be the same as above, bleed and DMC's that is, but it has now changed based upon different MSN's various SB's, mods, etc. Simply put, you have to refer to the DDG/MEL overtime.

We don't have a specific requirement to make note of it in the tech log at the end of flight unless of course there is a message on ECAM.

Speedwinner,

Perhaps the question you're asking can be answered by noting the purpose of the maintenance status page. In short it was designed to provide data for the engineers that was not relevant during the flight in which the fault was detected, that is, it will not affect the pilots for this flight, however they'll be notified after landing that they need the engineers to come and look at something prior to another dispatch.

Nowadays of course, with the advent of low cost carriers, it cannot be assumed that there will be an engineer to notify if (m) action is indeed required. That probably wasn't considered when the aircraft was designed however as there was no such thing as a low cost carrier, engineers were abound, pilots got paid moorland it's possible the world was just a better place ;-) how things have changed.

Thanks guys!

Just like to add that as an engineer I believe that it is a good idea to annotate Flt Ctrl maint message in the log book. The crew turn off the IRS and leave the flight deck, this puts Flt Ctrl Maint status ON as a standing warning. When I action daily check, I do not align the IRS to check if there is a Flt Ctrl warning there.

Steve, if I read you correctly: For daily check you do not energize the IRSs. There is a MAINT message F/CTL, that is associated with this de-powered state. In consequence, it is assumed that F/CTL is the result of IRS being off and not an other F/CTL message, that could be visible before securing the flightdeck. Correct?

rationals about MAINT STS on A320
 

Dear All,

My little contribution:

- for reasons given in the quotes above, a MEL should be opened for any MAINT STS displayed.
- at beginnning of each ATA, in the MEL Item Chapter, you have the reference of the MEL item to open for a MAINT STS
- condition or not for DMC and BLEED MAINT STS: yes, this depends on configuration of your aircraft: MSN, MOD/SB status. Master MEL should give you which condition applies or not.

Regarding the F/CTRL MAINT STS noticed during pre-flight checks, this is a recurring question I've had with various airlines, and if this helps you, I give you my genral recommendation:
- pre flight checks are under reponsibility of the Maintenance
- aircraft preparation is under responsibilities of the crew (FCOM-NOR-SOP)
- pre flight check lists must be developped by each airline
- indeed, with ADIRUs are Off, you will have F/CTL MAINT STS message, because many computers (ELACs,SECs, SFCC) uses inputs from ADIRUs

Yes, I saw airlines not asking for ADIRUs to be turned On for the pre flight/daily check. There is no obligation to turn them On for the pre-flight/daily, unless your airline or AA asks for it.

However, as per the sequence of FCOM actions, when crew prepares the aircraft:
- they will first align ADIRUs
- only after, they will press STS P/B at the ECP to check if any MAINT STS is present
- If any MAINT STS is present, they will certainly (and this is an obligation) call the maintenance for opening the corresponding MEL item and this might generate a delay

As a conclusion:
- yes, there is no obligation to align ADIRU during pre flight/daily check
- but you take risk not to detect a MAINT STS that would be noticed by flight crew after aligning ADIRUs, and generating a delay that would certainly be charged to the maintenance

So, why not being pro-active an ask to modify pre-flight/daily checklists used by Maintenace, asking for ADIRU to be turned On before checking STS page (and turning them Off after check)?

That's the recommendation I make to all airline I worked with, and certainly some delays have been avoided, because trouble shooting started before crew arrival.

I wish you all a happy new year