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A320 captain reported that MEL items applied to the aircraft were confusing and did not apply to the situation as written.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1539379 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201805 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0001-0600 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Night |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | A320 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Parked |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural MEL Deviation - Procedural Maintenance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
Poor wording on mels. MEL says deferred 'AC gen.' it's a class ii message that was deferred; not the gen itself. Maintenance control asked me to add the quotes around 'AC gen' to help clarify; but it should have said deferred class ii 'AC gen' maintenance message. Entry [one week prior] says start fault showed starter shaft sheared during ground air start (APU deferred). The logical corrective entry would be 'starter replaced.' but instead it says a tsm (trouble shooting manual) says the fault is okay; engine starts okay. We don't have access to tsm's; so it should clarify by saying what the tsm is about. 'In accordance with tsm...; starter fault is erroneous; starter operates normally; okay to continue.' in both cases; it is not immediately apparent what is going on. If an FAA inspector saw that; and didn't have immediate access to maintenance control to clarify; those entries would be somewhat alarming - the generator is deferred; yet we continued to operate with it on? The starter shaft sheared? How did you start the engine?have a third person other than (1) maintenance control; or (2) the pilot or mechanic on the other end of the phone read the write up and corrective action and see if it makes sense.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A320 Captain reported that MEL items applied to the aircraft were confusing and did not apply to the situation as written.
Narrative: Poor wording on MELs. MEL says deferred 'AC GEN.' It's a Class II message that was deferred; not the GEN itself. Maintenance Control asked me to add the quotes around 'AC GEN' to help clarify; but it should have said deferred Class II 'AC GEN' Maintenance message. Entry [one week prior] says start fault showed starter shaft SHEARED during ground air start (APU deferred). The logical corrective entry would be 'starter replaced.' But instead it says a TSM (Trouble Shooting Manual) says the fault is okay; engine starts okay. We don't have access to TSM's; so it should clarify by saying what the TSM is about. 'In accordance with TSM...; starter fault is erroneous; starter operates normally; okay to continue.' In both cases; it is not immediately apparent what is going on. If an FAA Inspector saw that; and didn't have immediate access to Maintenance Control to clarify; those entries would be somewhat alarming - the generator is deferred; yet we continued to operate with it on? The starter shaft sheared? How did you start the engine?Have a third person other than (1) Maintenance Control; or (2) the pilot or mechanic on the other end of the phone read the write up and corrective action and see if it makes sense.
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.