TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 001 / E-mail / 250995
REPORTED x 1
In cruise with autopilot in, aircraft suddenly rolled up to about 45 degrees left with autopilot still engaged. Capt disengaged autopilot with his side stick, but aircraft would only roll back to about 18 degrees left for about 5 seconds, after which time all systems reverted to normal. Flight continued normally. Event details passed to Airbus Industrie - No action taken !!.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 002 / E-mail / 250995
REPORTED x 1
During taxi out right thrust lever suddenly failed to have control over engine. After several minutes of trying control returned with no input from crew. Aircraft returned to stand. No fault found.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 003 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
Sometimes while accessing other pages in the FMGC (e.g. maintenance), the computer will sometimes lock out and not provide a Return option to get back to any useful pages. The only way to get access back to the FMGC is to trip several CBs (not a good idea in flight as often there are extra electrical services off CBs that are only tagged as one service)
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 004 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
I've had Managed Flight (LNAV) fail in flight with aircraft going into HDG mode while still displaying - - - in FMA. Only becomes apparent when aircraft fails to turn a corner and carries straight on. (Also seen it once in Sim). No apparent reason or common factors.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 005 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
Always have both Flight Directors on or off, but never different as this confuses the computer and will apparently cause serious flight guidance errors to either or both pilots.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 006 / Voice / 131095
REPORTED x 1
Sometimes, especially during SIDs or STARs, the map display will not join to a particular waypoint and will show a 180 (ish) degree turn away from it. As you get closer to the turn it sorts itself out and you never usually turn, so its not really a problem except you can waste a lot of time trying to reprogram to get a correct display picture.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 007 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
When creating a waypoint from two VOR radials you should be able to enter the VOR details in either order (VOR1-RADIAL/VOR2-RADIAL or VOR2-RADIAL/VOR1-RADIAL). I've occasionally seen the MCDU be fussy about which order they are listed in and refuse to accept one option.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 008 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
The electronic voice which shouts "RETARD" at 20 feet, can come on at any height !!.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 009 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
From cruise at FL350, descent initiated down to FL200. As we passed FL250 ATC asked us to maintain FL210 on reaching. New ALT selected and aircraft leveled off at FL245 for several seconds before going into climb. We had to fiddle about with the ALT selector to get it back into a descent.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 010 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
I've sometimes seen while trying to set up the secondary flight plan page for a return to departure airfield, the FMGC refusing to accept one of the waypoints for the return route. You have to make a new waypoint at the same point and call it something else.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 011 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
Flying over threshold at Stansted England, computer dumps all information. Not so bad if your on finals, but if your being vectored overhead for a procedure then it gets interesting. I've seen it twice at Stansted, never anywhere else !!.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 012 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
Always fly in HDG mode before intercepting Localizer, as its possible to have Managed Nav fly you down a parallel glideslope.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 013 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
Altitude and Speed constraints. Never insert more than 16 in flight plan or ALL TV screens in cockpit go blank.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 014 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
During Managed Descent, aircraft tries to follow a speed range. Slightly high on descent profile and aircraft will fly at a higher speed but will try to stay within the range. If its a bit low on profile it will tend to fly at a slower speed within the range. If required it will apply power to maintain this speed. However, I've seen aircraft set up for descent, and after descent initiated, ATC give us a more direct routing (requiring a steeper profile). The progress page told us we were 1000 Ft low on profile, kept idle power on engines, and exceeded speed range. Condition continued till we took out autopilot as aircraft approached MMO.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 015 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
Not only is this aircraft fly by wire, its also steer by wire and flush by wire. Why does everything (even the toilet flush) need to be controlled by computers. The nosewheel steering will give random inputs whilst taxiing if there's a problem with the Inertial Nav system.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 016 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
The aircraft is powered by 3 hydraulic systems with no mechanical back up. Whenever there's a system low pressure sensed, the ECAM drills instruct you to shut down the affected system - Even if its the last remaining serviceable one !!.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 017 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
On Flight Control Unit there's a vertical speed select knob which shows selected V/S in double figures e.g. -3.0 is 3000 FPM down. However, when on VOR or NDB approach, its possible to select this to Flight Path Angle in which mode -3.0 is a 3 degree descent path. Its possible to get finger trouble and select 3000 FPM descent instead of 3 degrees, the display still shows the same thing. Some newer aircraft have been modified to read V/S as -3000 for 3000 FPM descent, but quite a lot of unmodified ones still flying.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 018 / E-mail / 121095
REPORTED x 1
During a single engine approach (above 30 feet) in gusting or turbulent conditions, its possible to apply a bit more power to prevent speed decay during the approach. If you use a bit too much however, you activate alpha floor protection mode, and the aircraft will think you want to go around...so it will...even though you actually want to land.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 019 / Voice / 101095
REPORTED x 1
At altitude with a rapid decompression, you want to do an Emergency Descent to get down to MSA or 10,000ft as quickly as possible. If during the descent you apply speedbrake too quickly the aircraft will pitch nose up initially. The computer thinks you are going to stall, retracts the speedbrake, and applies full power and pitches up into a climb, even though you are trying to do an emergency descent .
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 020 / E-mail / 141095
REPORTED x 1
After having put cruise winds into MCDU before flight, computer sometimes dumps them all at some point, can be pre departure or in flight. Please be aware of possible false time and fuel required estimates.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 021 / E-mail / 291195
REPORTED x 1
The following incident happened to one of our A-320 crews and they said they did not mind sharing the event with the rest of the pilots. It was a dark and dirty night...well not really and thankfully so. The aircraft on the inbound flight had experienced a momentary loss of the Captain's PFD and upper ECAM screen. Maintenance checked the aircraft and could not duplicate the fault. Weather enroute was clear as a bell so the outbound crew decided to carry on. Start up and taxi were normal. On rotation, the Captain' s PFD and upper ECAM screen went blank for a few seconds. this condition repeated itself intermittently until cruise. The problem kept reappearing enroute but there were also other weird things happening. Cabin emergency lights were occasionally flashing, VHF 1 & 2 was acting up, the standby horizon toppled once, and flags appeared on the standby HSI. Autopilot one kicked off and the cabin pressurisation fluctuated twice. The grand finale was all the instruments quitting once. Fortunately the weather was clear, there were lots of airports in view and ATC was very cooperative. They landed at destination and the aircraft was grounded. However, throughout the whole ordeal the coffeemaker worked fine! ! For those of you not familiar with the A-320, the ACARS prints out a post flight report listing ECAM warnings and failure messages. The fault printout was approximately 18 inches long and contained 40 warning messages and 19 failure messages. What caused this? Well, it seems the culprit was the DC Essential Bus Supply Contactor. The affected systems were all fed by the 28vDC supply contactor. Investigation revealed that the contacts were burnt and pitted causing a large voltage drop across the contacts. Instead of 28vDC supplying the systems only 15vDC was supplying the systems which caused the various systems to shut down. Follow-up with maintenance has determined that this has been considered as a one time event within Air Canada. Airbus reports only two other non related events worldwide in the A-320 fleet involving this contactor.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 022 / E-mail / 020296
REPORTED x 1
After arrival on stand, after engines shutdown and with all doors having been disarmed, the senior cabin crew member said that she was not convinced that the forward service door was in fact disarmed. All required actions had been taken and all Indications showed the door to be disarmed: the ECAM door page showed all slides disarmed, the door handle was fully up, the pin had been Inserted and the green door disarmed flag was in full view.
Engineering Inspection showed that significant amounts of ice had accumulated around the lower portion of the door, including over the girt bar and floor mountings. With the door handle fully up the girt bar did not move out of the floor mountings, but the pin could be Inserted. Despite all indications to the contrary, the slide would have blown if the door had been operated.
After approximately 10 minutes all Ice had melted and door operation/slide arm dispatch operation returned to normal.
Firing of the slide on door opening was only averted by the cabin crew being alert to the fact that with the pin inserted it should not be possible to move the handle down, and the reporter has suggested that a check of the handle for downward movement after pin insertion be incorporated into standard operating procedures. The manufacturer has been advised.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 023 / E-mail / 040296
REPORTED x 1
I have three times experienced a gross map shift error (the worst case being 80 nm) without any ECAM warning message. I now always back up with VOR/NDB info. On all occasions engineers have been unable to find any fault on landing.
TYPE : 320
NUMBER / ORIGIN / DATE : 024 / E-mail / 251196
REPORTED x 1
Watch out during the first flight after a power down for any length of time,(such as first flight of the day after an overnight longstop). Moisture gets into the clockwork, and last week we had several uncommanded climbs from cruise altitude with auto thrust and pilot engaged during an early morning trip to the next state.