Airbus ECAM Actions - Breaking Down the Wall
 

Having flown the Airbus now for some years I often find that during our sims there is a 'wall' that develops between PF and PM during ECAM Actions. The PF tends to focus on aviating, navigating, communicating while the PM is reconfiguring the aircraft. Often times as PF I find myself so absorbed by the task of doing all three (especially if the failure increases the complexity of flying e.g. alternate/direct law, AP inop etc.) that I'm honestly completely disconnected and not really watching what the PM is doing. I understand that Airbus requires the PF to cross check that all actions are completed before clearing the ECAM, but this is sometimes a little too late. Do the more experienced Airbus drivers in this forum have any specific advise on how to avoid this negative tendency, or is it just an inevitable part of how abnormal procedures are conducted in the Bus?

PM should wait and verbally ask you, the PF to check and confirm before clearing any ECAM line; e.g: "OK to clear Green HYD OVHT ?." (for example).

You look at the ECAM and read it, and then say "OK to clear". Or if you are busy with a PF task, you say "stand by", and look at the ECAM when you can.

That's how we were taught - it's a two crew cockpit and both pilots should work together to work through the ECAM and config changes. And PF dictates what you do and when. If PM is rushing ahead and doing things and clearing ECAM lines without your confirmation, you need to remind them to wait for you to confirm each action first.

This is really important because if the wrong thing is actioned or cleared by PM your emergency could get a lot worse.

The Airbus manual has this all written out - or it used to. I cannot remember exactly where off the top of my head, but it's there - possibly the FCTM.

If things are going too fast, or you are very busy with hand flying; YOU slow it down - there is nothing that needs instant or fast action, except putting on an oxygen mask if required, or keeping straight with the rudder during an EFATO.

Everything else should be done methodically and carefully with both of you in the loop, cross-checking each other.
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I'm just intrigued as to why the flying is taking so much of your capacity. By the time you get to ecam you can be flying level (maybe descending), in a straight line, already safe from weather and terrain.

Not objectively a hard task. Have you set yourself up for success by making the flying easier? Not much different from flying a Cessna and doing some checklist items simultaneously.

I have found it to be the other way around.

Whatever pops up on ECAM (especially in real life, when things happen rarely) is a powerful attention magnet and more often than not, it results in both pilots staring at ECAM, with nobody minding the airplane. Conveniently located between pilots, it can be a powerful distraction to the PF - unlike in older airplanes, where the PM is performing checklists from the QRH.

Keep it simple, the PF’s job is mostly to fly the plane and PM’s job is to read the checklists. There’s only a handful of items that require a confirmation from both pilots.

trust your PM, he should be trained to handle the ECAM in a proper way - and if he doesn’t, the ECAM will tell them.

Your SOPs must be very different. Ours were that every underlined ECAM fault heading line needs to be confirmed by both pilots before clearing it.

Not the action lines - unless they contained an irreversible action such as a fire PB or something.

Are you the captain? Give control to the FO and run the ECAM yourself.

If the ECAM concerns actioning switches on the overhead panel, which usually takes more effort for the PM to monitor whilst flying the aircraft manually especially in degraded conditions, this is where the FCTM recommended technique of handling the overhead panel switches should help:

When the ECAM/QRH/OEB procedure requires the flight crew to perform an action on the overhead panel or when the flight crew performs a system reset, the flight crew is able to rapidly identify and find the correct system panel via the white label (uppercase) that is on the side or on top of each panel. To perform any action requested by a procedure, the PM should indicate the related panel and control and announce in sequence: ‐ The name of the system ‐ The name of the control, or system reset ‐ The action. E.g. “AIR, XBLEED, CLOSE". The use of this type of approach enables the PM to keep the PF informed of the progress of the procedure and reduces the risk of the PM operating the wrong control. It is important for the flight crew to remember that, most of the time, in the case of a system failure, the FAULT light of the applicable control comes on in amber. This enables the flight crew to correctly identify the applicable system control on the overhead panel. After the selection of a control, the PM should check the SD page, in order to verify that the selected action was performed (e.g. The closure of the crossbleed valve should change the indications that appear on the SD page).

FCTM:

If you find yourself disconnected, that's when you need to slow things down, it shouldn't be a race. If you can utilize automation let it, and try to take a step back to see the situation. If in direct or complex, get things stable before acknowledging. A good idea of systems knowledge will help, so when it happens you'll have an idea of what to expect. If there's doubt or confusion, ask the PM. Transfer control if you can or must to further understand the situation. Getting things right is greater than time. Overall I think Airbus does a wonderful job on the ECAM and SOP.

Command the PM to stop ecam until your workload is manageable.

if your at the stage of clearing ecams, the critical initial actions have been completed and all you are doing is reconfiguring the systems.

Not necessarily; PM might in their haste, or accidentally; clear an ECAM fault heading line when they have NOT properly completed the action lines. That is partly what the cross checking is for.

nobody should clear ECAMS until both agree

I found myself agreeing with Sidestick_n_Rudder , usually both pilots can be quite fixated on ECAM and then no one's really dedicating their full attention to flying the aircraft, thus breaking one of the golden rules.

As far as the topic being discussed: From the FCTM (Handling of ECAM -> ECAM Tasksharing)
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....31e33dfffb.png

I've always interpreted the "ECAM actions performed... Check" on the PF column as taking a look at the EWD and indeed verifying that there isn't any action line pending when asked by PM to "Clear [System Failed]". Yes, I know some will remain there even when performed, but you can take a couple of seconds to get the picture of what has been done. Only then you will confirm to "Clear (name of system", which is the next step for the PF. This will ensure the proper actions were taken. The FCTM even mentions that "before the PM presses the CLR pb, the flight crew (not just the PM) should carefully check that all actions have been performed"

Uplinker : if proper tasksharing is used, the name of the failure should have been mentioned when first troubleshooting it. Hence, if a failure title magically disappears, that should be a hint that something was mistakenly or improperly cleared. Use the Recall button

Yes, I know :ok:

It is Airmann and sidestick_n_rudder who seem to be unsure about the Airbus procedures.

Thanks for quoting the FCTM, my copy is unavailable at the moment, (not on the line right now).

I never said I was unsure of the Airbus procedures. I just shared my observation, that in real life situations, ECAM tends to absorb more PF’s attention, than it should. It takes quite a lot of self-discipline to focus on flying, not on whatever popped up on the ECAM - at least I had this feeling when I flew the Bus…

OK, I'll get my coat............

But this is what confused me:

Quote:

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Keep it simple, the PF’s job is mostly to fly the plane and PM’s job is to read the checklists. There’s only a handful of items that require a confirmation from both pilots.

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Seemed to imply that PF and PM do their own jobs without cross checking. And the ECAM will not necessarily warn you if an action line has been cleared , (unless it appears on STATUS page later). Apologies if I was wrong.

Hi!

To be honest it feels like a training issue more than anything. The ECAM handling as a very simple but very strict discipline which will help overcome all those sort of issues you described.

People tend to get lost and lose SAW during the handling of failures because of poor ECAM discipline. And it doesn’t matter if you have been flying the plane for 1 year or 30 years, it will always be the same routine.

Most commonly observed errors:

- when a master caution “bing” comes on, the first pilot who notices it does not cancel the caution leaving the distracting light in sight.
- the PM does not read the title of the failure and confirms with SD/overhead before the PF calls for OEB/ECAM actions. This is crucial as now the PF knows what is going on and can decide to delay the ECAM actions whenever suitable.
- When carrying out ECAM actions the PM does not mention the name of the system on the overhead panel and the action performed, e.g. ECAM calls for BLEED 2 OFF, PM points the overhead and states AIR-BLEED 2-OFF, hence granting the PF to stay in the loop while flying.
- PF and PM come up with all sort of funny callouts such as read ecam, standby status,etc..
Unless your operator has changed the ECAM callouts there is only space for:
ECAM ACTIONS-STATUS?-STOP ECAM-CONTINUE ECAM-REMOVE STATUS-ECAM ACTIONS COMPLETE (very important as it restores the normal PF/PM roles). In addition of course to the “CLEAR” (system).
- Unclear discipline on the use of summaries. Crew going back and forth several times with the status or losing time in reading the whole summary before starting the decision making process (only the cruise part is needed for this purpose, the rest is to prepare and brief the approach).
- PM not giving the correct emphasis when reading the Status to the different INOP systems using the same tone of voice to state Cargo door inop and Nose wheel steering inop…

Just a handful of rules to be applied which will make all the difference when dealing with abnormals.

Ooohhhh....sonicbum has most of it covered in a nice friendly manner!

a few points for education

there is no PF calling 'standby' when doing the ECAM it is 'STOP ECAM' it ensures the PM does just that. FCTM covers it in detail.

the chart above from the FCTM is misleading as it misses a fundamental tenet of Airbus. You need the whole chart reproduced. It is the PM who starts the ECAM. There are very good AIRBUS reasons for this. If you don't understand why this is then I am happy to explain as it is fundamental to operating an Airbus..

My reference to the phrase "standby" was if PM asks e.g. "Clear Green HYD?", but at that moment PF needs to do something with the flight path or listen to an RT call for example. In other words, "hang on a sec."

It's a general multi crew phrase, I didn't mean to imply it was an Airbus SOP.

As SLF I have a question. PM says “CLEAR (name of the system)?

To me that depends on the PM using the correct inflection in his voice and the PF hearing and understanding it.

To me it should be a spoken question. “SHOULD I CLEAR (name of the system)?