Narrative:

During approach with the left autopilot in cmd and before the FAF; I requested my first officer to set the flaps to 25 as planned following by the landing checklist. While reading the checklist; I noticed the flaps never reached 25 and the indication was on magenta. The first thing I did was check the flap lever to see if it was in the correct position and it was. Then as we were troubleshooting and taking into consideration our altitude and the excellent weather conditions (cavok); I asked my first officer for flaps 30. They went down to 30 with a green annunciation. Then I asked him to set the flaps back to 25; but the flap and in magenta color. Being above 1000 and having until 500 according to our sops; I requested flaps 30 again; adjusted my MCP target speed for vref 30+5; and very quickly I changed my FMC approach reference speed to flaps 30 then we finished the landing checklist while we continued the approach. Seconds later I asked my entire crew if they were ok with it or if someone had a suggestion or different action plan. Everybody seemed to be comfortable with what I did; no objections or different suggestions and I continued with the final stage of the final approach and landed safely.on my post flight procedure during the maintenance briefing; our inflight mechanic told us that maintenance was aware of the issue. They ordered the parts and that we were carrying the parts with us next to L1 door; but they were trying to make some time to fix it on the next arrival. During our preflight; we get a very nice and complete maintenance briefing confirming to us that the airplane was clean; good; and no open items. They knew about this possible flight controls/flight indication issue; but they forgot to brief us about it. I told them that I see on my release a clean airplane; with no mels or ddgs items listed; and after receiving a very professional maintenance briefing I checked few pages back to see the write ups history; but I won't be back to the first page of the logbook.when I told our flight mechanic 'I will put this issue on the logbook;' he said to us that it was an intermittent ongoing issue; that it was written before somewhere; and that they knew about it. 'Why is it not on the logbook? Why did we not have an MEL/ddg reference number?' I asked and he started looking everywhere and every single paper sheet on the can until finally he found out a previously write up on the maintenance logbook; but so many pages before and also it was signed off.on our way to the hotel; I called maintenance control; explained to them what happened; and they were also aware of what was going on. Everybody knew what was going on with the airplane; but the flight crew.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B747 flight crew reported that on approach the flaps would not reach flaps 25; but were successfully set to 30 degrees.

Narrative: During approach with the left autopilot in CMD and before the FAF; I requested my FO to set the Flaps to 25 as planned following by the Landing Checklist. While reading the checklist; I noticed the flaps never reached 25 and the indication was on magenta. The first thing I did was check the Flap Lever to see if it was in the correct position and it was. Then as we were troubleshooting and taking into consideration our altitude and the excellent weather conditions (CAVOK); I asked my FO for Flaps 30. They went down to 30 with a green annunciation. Then I asked him to set the Flaps back to 25; but the Flap and in magenta color. Being above 1000 and having until 500 according to our SOPs; I requested Flaps 30 again; adjusted my MCP Target Speed for Vref 30+5; and very quickly I changed my FMC Approach Reference Speed to Flaps 30 then we finished the landing checklist while we continued the approach. Seconds later I asked my entire crew if they were OK with it or if someone had a suggestion or different action plan. Everybody seemed to be comfortable with what I did; no objections or different suggestions and I continued with the final stage of the final approach and landed safely.On my Post Flight Procedure during the maintenance briefing; our inflight mechanic told us that maintenance was aware of the issue. They ordered the parts and that we were carrying the parts with us next to L1 Door; but they were trying to make some time to fix it on the next arrival. During our preflight; we get a very nice and complete maintenance briefing confirming to us that the airplane was clean; good; and no open items. They knew about this possible Flight Controls/Flight Indication Issue; but they forgot to brief us about it. I told them that I see on my release a clean airplane; with NO MELs or DDGs items listed; and after receiving a very professional maintenance briefing I checked few pages back to see the write ups history; but I won't be back to the first page of the logbook.When I told our flight mechanic 'I will put this issue on the logbook;' he said to us that it was an intermittent ongoing issue; that it was written before somewhere; and that they knew about it. 'Why is it not on the logbook? Why did we not have an MEL/DDG Reference number?' I asked and he started looking everywhere and every single paper sheet on the can until finally he found out a previously write up on the maintenance logbook; but so many pages before and also it was signed off.On our way to the hotel; I called Maintenance Control; explained to them what happened; and they were also aware of what was going on. Everybody knew what was going on with the airplane; but the flight crew.

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.