An A320 captain wrote up his pfd enroute as being too dim even at maximum brightness; but at the nex...

Narrative:

Once aligned on the runway; I set the brakes and transferred control of the aircraft to the first officer. This was done in full compliance with SOP. When we received takeoff clearance; I acknowledged it; the first officer released the brakes and pushed the power up. As I had been scanning the runway when the takeoff clearance was received; I glanced down at the engine instruments for an initial check when I took the throttles from the first officer. I again scanned the runway and as I felt we were getting close to 80 KTS; looked down at my pfd for the airspeed. The pfd was completely washed out in the bright sunlight and unreadable. I reached down to ensure that the pfd was selected 'full bright' and it was. I then determined that I could make out the V speed indicators on the pfd and we continued for a normal takeoff. I have been flying the A320 for years as a captain and have seen bad pfds; but not one that was this bad. I wrote up the pfd enroute to den as 'extremely dim and unreadable in bright sunlight.' furthermore; another indication that this pfd was going bad is that with the brightness knob backed off on 25%; the pfd was dark. We terminated in den and I followed up on the maintenance action that was taken with this aircraft. The pfd was signed off as 'ok per outbound crew.' this is unsatisfactory for a number of different reasons. The conditions in den were not anywhere close to the conditions that I encountered in the bright sunlight. Further; the indication of the brightness knob needing to be turned past 3/4 to see any pfd indications is another red flag that this instrument is going bad. I find it unacceptable that this pfd has not been replaced. It is a safety issue and just because the aircraft is going to fly at dusk on its next leg does not mean the pfd is serviceable. As a captain if a pfd was written up inbound to me; I would trust the inbound captain's decision to write it up knowing that he had a legitimate problem with the pfd.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 Captain wrote up his PFD enroute as being too dim even at maximum brightness; but at the next stop the outbound Captain said it was normal; and maintenance cleared the item.

Narrative: Once aligned on the runway; I set the brakes and transferred control of the aircraft to the First Officer. This was done in full compliance with SOP. When we received takeoff clearance; I acknowledged it; the First Officer released the brakes and pushed the power up. As I had been scanning the runway when the takeoff clearance was received; I glanced down at the engine instruments for an initial check when I took the throttles from the First Officer. I again scanned the runway and as I felt we were getting close to 80 KTS; looked down at my PFD for the airspeed. The PFD was completely washed out in the bright sunlight and unreadable. I reached down to ensure that the PFD was selected 'Full Bright' and it was. I then determined that I could make out the V speed indicators on the PFD and we continued for a normal takeoff. I have been flying the A320 for years as a Captain and have seen bad PFDs; but not one that was this bad. I wrote up the PFD enroute to DEN as 'extremely dim and unreadable in bright sunlight.' Furthermore; another indication that this PFD was going bad is that with the brightness knob backed off on 25%; the PFD was dark. We terminated in DEN and I followed up on the maintenance action that was taken with this aircraft. The PFD was signed off as 'OK per outbound crew.' This is unsatisfactory for a number of different reasons. The conditions in DEN were not anywhere close to the conditions that I encountered in the bright sunlight. Further; the indication of the brightness knob needing to be turned past 3/4 to see any PFD indications is another red flag that this instrument is going bad. I find it unacceptable that this PFD has not been replaced. It is a safety issue and just because the aircraft is going to fly at dusk on its next leg does not mean the PFD is serviceable. As a Captain if a PFD was written up inbound to me; I would trust the inbound Captain's decision to write it up knowing that he had a legitimate problem with the PFD.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of May 2009 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.

Attributes
ACN	817206
Time
Date	200812
Local Time Of Day	1201 To 1800
Place
Locale Reference	airport : zzz.airport
State Reference	US
Altitude	agl single value : 0
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Operator	common carrier : air carrier
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	ground : takeoff roll
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Affiliation	company : air carrier
Function	flight crew : captain oversight : pic
Experience	flight time last 90 days : 165 flight time total : 10525 flight time type : 3465
ASRS Report	817206
Events
Anomaly	aircraft equipment problem : less severe
Independent Detector	other flight crewa
Resolutory Action	none taken : anomaly accepted
Consequence	other
Supplementary
Problem Areas	Maintenance Human Performance Flight Crew Human Performance Aircraft
Primary Problem	Ambiguous

An A320 captain wrote up his pfd enroute as being too dim even at maximum brightness; but at the next stop the outbound captain said it was normal; and maintenance cleared the item.