Narrative:

Once again dim crts are being pushed down the line. I thought mr X in engineering had a handle on this problem but word is not getting out. I wrote up this a/C for a dim ECAM screen as soon as I began preflight. Maintenance coordinated the deferral procedure to get the a/C back to ZZZ. When I finished the day I checked to see what became of the gripe. Maintenance signed it off per outbound captain and MT31-012(airbus maintenance tip). No change to any parameter. ZZZ1 eyeballs against ZZZ eyeballs. This grates me to no end. This is the sole focus of airbus sil 31-030. This screen (and likely cap pfd) would fail if tested with the proper tool. My understanding from a few conversations with mr X was that if a pilot said it was too dim; it's too dim. I have know idea under what ambient light conditions; operational constraints; or other motivation the other captain would accept it shouldn't matter. The point is the screen will not likely meet standards set forth in the reference. The sil mentions crts begin to dim after the 6000 hour point; this a/C has 27;000 plus as of today. The part that was griped did not have a tracking number number; and as I understand it that is an original part. So it follows that this CRT has more than a factor of 4 times the number of hours at which these crts begin to deteriorate. As previously discussed in multiple reports pilots and mechanics do not understand that this is a gripe and should be fixed. Most of the pilots I poll say they were trained it's a bus thing; deal with it! So they likely don't know to gripe it. Only a handful of line mechanics know about it. I usually get a new screen out of the gripe because I will refuse it and have that reputation among the line folks. There are a few other pilots out there with this knowledge who exercise good judgment; but not many. The cap pfd and the CRT I griped today were signed off in the same manner in july who knows how many legs have passed with no pilot gripe. I know it is expensive; but this one deserves some maintenance dollars; pilot and mechanic training.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 Captain reports another incident of a cockpit display being too dim to read in normal ambient light. CRTs are well beyond their normal life expectancy but are not being replaced.

Narrative: Once again dim CRTs are being pushed down the line. I thought Mr X in Engineering had a handle on this problem but word is not getting out. I wrote up this A/C for a dim ECAM screen as soon as I began preflight. Maintenance coordinated the deferral procedure to get the A/C back to ZZZ. When I finished the day I checked to see what became of the gripe. Maintenance signed it off per outbound Captain and MT31-012(Airbus maintenance tip). No change to any parameter. ZZZ1 eyeballs against ZZZ eyeballs. This grates me to no end. This is the sole focus of Airbus SIL 31-030. This screen (and likely Cap PFD) would fail if tested with the proper tool. My understanding from a few conversations with Mr X was that if a pilot said it was too dim; it's too dim. I have know idea under what ambient light conditions; operational constraints; or other motivation the other Captain would accept it shouldn't matter. The point is the screen will not likely meet standards set forth in the reference. The SIL mentions CRTs begin to dim after the 6000 hour point; this A/C has 27;000 plus as of today. The part that was griped did not have a tracking number number; and as I understand it that is an original part. So it follows that this CRT has more than a factor of 4 times the number of hours at which these CRTs begin to deteriorate. As previously discussed in multiple reports pilots and mechanics do not understand that this is a gripe and should be fixed. Most of the pilots I poll say they were trained it's a bus thing; deal with it! So they likely don't know to gripe it. Only a handful of line mechanics know about it. I usually get a new screen out of the gripe because I will refuse it and have that reputation among the line folks. There are a few other pilots out there with this knowledge who exercise good judgment; but not many. The Cap PFD and the CRT I griped today were signed off in the same manner in July who knows how many legs have passed with no pilot gripe. I know it is expensive; but this one deserves some maintenance dollars; pilot and mechanic training.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.