Narrative:

Ground crew did their pre-departure walk around plane inspection and found nose gear leg door loose. They tried to fix it; but eventually decided to remove the door and defer it and use a cdl. Mechanics brought the door up to the cockpit and placed it in our closet with a configuration deviation list (cdl) sticker on the panel. They told us we were good to go and maintenance release document (mrd) was already on our cockpit printer. I tore it off and read what it said. I read paragraphs a;B&C; but did not see paragraph D saying flight must be a ferry flight with gear down. The reason I did not see that paragraph was there was a big gap of blank paper between paragraph C and D. Paragraph C talked about 'no pilot action required' regarding performance penalties; so I incorrectly assumed I'd read all the paragraphs. Maintenance obviously did not know or see about the gear down & ferry flight paragraph either; since we had a full plane for a 2 hour flight.on departure climb as we accelerated and cleaned up the airplane; there was a very loud hum caused by the missing panel. It was so loud; after I reached cruise altitude; I ACARS maintenance telling them it was too loud to pass onto another crew and needed to be addressed. Maintenance responded asking 'do we have the gear down'. I replied 'no. We are at altitude now.' maintenance asked me to join him on a phone patch thru dispatch; which I did. Maintenance said the cdl was incorrectly applied. Anyway; the flight continued because we were already at cruise altitude and mach .77; and the hum was a minor nuisance and not nearly as loud. Departure; climb; cruise; descent and approach were no-eventful; except for the loud hum on climb out with our nose elevated. Neither maintenance; nor the captain realized it was supposed to be a ferry flight with the gear extended. Otherwise I would not have taken the plane.but part of the blame goes to how ACARS prints out the mrd. It prints in groups or patches and out of order sometimes. If paragraph D had been paragraph a; stating ferry flight only or landing gear extended and down for the entire flight; maybe that would have been a lot more obvious instead of at the end and after a paragraph stating 'no pilot action required'. It was an honest mistake by all involved. It was not a willful action on anyone's part.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The flight crew of an A319 were in non-compliance of an MEL when they flew the aircraft with a nose gear door removed as a passenger flight when the MEL required it to be a ferry flight.

Narrative: Ground crew did their pre-departure walk around plane inspection and found nose gear leg door loose. They tried to fix it; but eventually decided to remove the door and defer it and use a CDL. Mechanics brought the door up to the cockpit and placed it in our closet with a Configuration Deviation List (CDL) sticker on the panel. They told us we were good to go and Maintenance Release Document (MRD) was already on our cockpit printer. I tore it off and read what it said. I read paragraphs A;B&C; but did not see paragraph D saying flight must be a ferry flight with gear down. The reason I did not see that paragraph was there was a big gap of blank paper between paragraph C and D. Paragraph C talked about 'No pilot action required' regarding performance penalties; so I incorrectly assumed I'd read all the paragraphs. Maintenance obviously did not know or see about the gear down & Ferry flight paragraph either; since we had a full plane for a 2 hour flight.On departure climb as we accelerated and cleaned up the airplane; there was a very loud hum caused by the missing panel. It was so loud; after I reached cruise altitude; I ACARS maintenance telling them it was too loud to pass onto another crew and needed to be addressed. Maintenance responded asking 'Do we have the gear down'. I replied 'No. We are at altitude now.' Maintenance asked me to join him on a phone patch thru Dispatch; which I did. Maintenance said the CDL was incorrectly applied. Anyway; the flight continued because we were already at cruise altitude and Mach .77; and the hum was a minor nuisance and not nearly as loud. Departure; climb; cruise; descent and approach were no-eventful; except for the loud hum on climb out with our nose elevated. Neither maintenance; nor the Captain realized it was supposed to be a Ferry flight with the gear extended. Otherwise I would not have taken the plane.But part of the blame goes to how ACARS prints out the MRD. It prints in groups or patches and out of order sometimes. If paragraph D had been paragraph A; stating FERRY FLIGHT ONLY or LANDING GEAR EXTENDED AND DOWN FOR THE ENTIRE FLIGHT; maybe that would have been a lot more obvious instead of at the end and after a paragraph stating 'No Pilot Action Required'. It was an honest mistake by all involved. It was not a willful action on anyone's part.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.