Narrative:

On my walk around I noticed the right nose tire pressure gauge read 172 psi. I believed the minimum was 190 but was uncertain. I looked in the flight manual and realized the company took out the tire pressure minimums. I contacted maintenance control with my concerns and after a lengthy delay while the controller tried to find the information it was determined that the pressure should be 190 psi with the possibility to go as low as 180 psi adjusted for temperatures below 20 degrees celsius. During the time the controller was researching the information he attempted on a couple of occasions to have me forget this issue by making statements like: 'there is a maintenance bulletin out that says we (pilots) are not to look at the tire pressure gauges' and 'the gauges are no longer maintained so they are not accurate'. What good is checking the tire pressure each day if it is not the first flight of the day? How would maintenance have caught the under inflation I noticed at our 'non-maintenance' departure station before we departed? Was 172 psi dangerous? I don't know because I did not set the minimum 190 psi requirement. But I would guess airbus must have thought it was important to be higher than 172 or why else publish such a high minimum? It is obvious that the company is taking away one more safety net for cost savings. Had I not noticed the low pressure there would not have been a maintenance call out cost nor a small departure delay. Am I to ask before every departure to have the tire pressure checked by maintenance? Otherwise how else am I to be sure the tires are inflated per the aircraft manufacturer's guidelines? Just looking at the tire as the bulletin suggests is not reasonable. I have seen loaded aircraft with tires that appear 'low' only to have them prove to be properly inflated. I have also noticed tires that looked perfectly inflated that were 172 psi. So how is safety not being compromised? This is an addition to my previous report. I left off a main point regarding tire pressure gauge readings. After the run around from maintenance control; contract maintenance was sent to inspect the tire. It was; in fact; below the minimum and it was serviced to 190 psi. The computer log shows this. Had I not called this in it would not have been caught until some time later in the day during its 'daily inspection'.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 pilot found a nose gear tire pressure below what he believed was the minimum. Discovered minimum tire pressures had been removed from the aircraft flight manual. Reporter persevered until the tire was properly inflated by contract maintenance.

Narrative: On my walk around I noticed the right nose tire pressure gauge read 172 psi. I believed the minimum was 190 but was uncertain. I looked in the flight manual and realized the company took out the tire pressure minimums. I contacted Maintenance Control with my concerns and after a lengthy delay while the Controller tried to find the information it was determined that the pressure should be 190 psi with the possibility to go as low as 180 psi adjusted for temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius. During the time the Controller was researching the information he attempted on a couple of occasions to have me forget this issue by making statements like: 'There is a maintenance bulletin out that says we (pilots) are not to look at the tire pressure gauges' and 'The gauges are no longer maintained so they are not accurate'. What good is checking the tire pressure each day if it is not the first flight of the day? How would maintenance have caught the under inflation I noticed at our 'non-maintenance' departure station before we departed? Was 172 psi dangerous? I don't know because I did not set the minimum 190 psi requirement. But I would guess Airbus must have thought it was important to be higher than 172 or why else publish such a high minimum? It is obvious that the company is taking away one more safety net for cost savings. Had I not noticed the low pressure there would not have been a maintenance call out cost nor a small departure delay. Am I to ask before every departure to have the tire pressure checked by maintenance? Otherwise how else am I to be sure the tires are inflated per the aircraft manufacturer's guidelines? Just looking at the tire as the bulletin suggests is not reasonable. I have seen loaded aircraft with tires that appear 'low' only to have them prove to be properly inflated. I have also noticed tires that looked perfectly inflated that were 172 psi. So how is safety not being compromised? This is an addition to my previous report. I left off a main point regarding tire pressure gauge readings. After the run around from Maintenance Control; Contract Maintenance was sent to inspect the tire. It was; in fact; below the minimum and it was serviced to 190 psi. The computer log shows this. Had I not called this in it would not have been caught until some time later in the day during its 'daily inspection'.

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.