Report Categories

The information necessary for maintenance is included in the reports generated from the CMS. It is clear that without them there would be no difference in the aircraft maintenance process. Whatever the kind of the report, it reaches the human operator as a piece of paper or as a message on a screen. Essentially the content of these messages consists of the fault and warning messages that occurred during the flight. By knowing what has been damaged, and where it is located, the maintenance engineers are able to reduce the maintenance time to the minimum, and also to be as accurate as possible in carrying out the maintenance. An example of the content is the ATA reference number, the faulty LRUs part numbers, the time that the fault was recorded, the systems that were affected, and further guidance about the maintenance manual documentation regarding the specific faults that occur each time. Regardless the content, there are different kinds or report, the main distinction between them related to the means by which they are interrogated by the operator in order for the reports to be generated. Hence we find the reports specifically connected to the CMC and those specifically connected to every BITE for more detailed interrogation. After that, the primary factor that distinguishes them concerns the condition of the aircraft, i.e. whether it is on the ground or in flight. This in turn determines if and where the report will be printed or transmitted.

The category of reports that are dedicated to the CMC begins with the Post Flight Report, which refers to the last flight that the aircraft completed. This report contains all the warnings and fault messages that were generated for the last flight, regardless of whether or not they appeared on a screen. This kind of report can only be transmitted to the ground and printed after the last engine has been shut down. The same applies for the Previous Flight Report, the difference being that the warning and fault messages for the second type could be from the previous 64 flights, and it is limited to the total of 252 messages, unlike the Post Flight Report, which is unlimited but refers only to the last flight.

The Current Flight Report is virtually the same as the Post Flight Report, the only difference being that the former can be transmitted while the aircraft is still in the air, and includes all the warnings and faults that occurred up until the time it was sent. Only two other reports can be transmitted while the aircraft is still in flight; the Real Time Failure and the Real Time Warning, both at the discretion of the operator. The value of these reports could be of great significance on many occasions. It is not a rare event for a flight to be delayed because of

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aircraft problems. By transmitting important issues to the ground base the maintenance crew has the chance to prepare itself and to assemble the necessary tooling in order to respond more effectively to a difficult upcoming failure.

The Avionics Status Report shows whether and how the systems of the aircraft have been affected by Class 1 and 2 faults. These types of warnings and faults are explained later in this chapter. It cannot be transmitted, but it can be printed both in flight and on the ground. For Class 3 faults there is a dedicated report which amalgamates all the Class 3 faults which occurred in all the systems. It can be printed in flight or on the ground, but there is no option for real time transmission. This report exists in both CMC dedicated reports and individual BITE reports.

Last but not least is the SYSTEM REPORT/TEST. This belongs to the CMC reports, but also constitutes a separate category on its own, and is specific to every BITE. The purpose of this report, which is part of the main maintenance menu, is to ensure a dialog on the ground between the MCDUs and each one of the systems (Type 1, 2, 3) connected to the CMCs.

These reports provide a more detailed interaction between the maintenance crew and each of the systems, and depending on the kind of the system (Type 1, 2, 3) to provide more specific details.

A greater number of reports relate to the Type 1 systems, and their significance is highly critical. Such a system is the Full Authorized Digital Engine Control (FADEC) and the available extracted reports are listed below. All of them constitute the second category of individual BITE dependant reports. For the Type 2 and 3 systems the available extracted reports are reduced successively.

For Type 1 systems, the following reports can be extracted:

 LAST LEG REPORT

 PREVIOUS LEG REPORTS

 GROUND REPORT

 TEST

 LRU IDENT

 TROUBLE SHOOTING DATA

 CLASS 3 FAULTS

 GROUND SCANNING (optional)

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The content of the reports described above is the same as that of the CMC reports, but the information is presented at a more analytical level. The Last Leg Report contains the internal and external faults of the system, and identifies the number of the faulty component, the day and time, as well as the ATA reference. The part number is also available from the LRU IDENT report. The same is true for the Previous Leg Report, but for more than one flight leg. Only Class 1 and 2 faults are shown; for Class 3 faults, there is a separate Class 3 Report. However the report that maintenance engineers most usually ask for is the Ground Report, which is exactly the same as the Last Leg Report and the Ground Scanning Report, with the option that they can see the computer as it appeared during the flight, and take down the fault messages. The number of the faulty LRU is defined, and the operator can be transferred to the TROUBLE SHOOTING DATA for any supplementary information.

The option of filtering is available in almost all of the reports. This means that the operator can program the filtered parameters by inputting the specific warning and fault messages into the system in order to extract them from the flight. It is also possible to program the time at which the report will be printed or transmitted. The filtering criteria can be printed in a separate report called Flight Report Filter, which also belongs to the CMS dedicated reports. Except for the reports that the system generates in order to assist the maintenance process, there are those whose content refers to internal CMS functions and affect its fidelity. One such report is the UTC/DATE INIT report, which provides data of time, date etc., in order to reset the system after a power loss. This kind can be generated in flight or on the ground (Airbus Industry, 2010e).

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