Maintenance Briefing Note

Recommendations further to in-

flight manual computer reset

Uwe Eggerling
Senior Director of Safety
Maintenance & Engineering
Airbus Customer Services

March 2018
 Recommendations further to in-flight manual computer reset

• Introduction

The purpose of this Maintenance Briefing Note is to raise awareness to the Airbus Trouble
Shooting Manual (TSM) instructions that must be applied further to in-flight manual
computer resets and for troubleshooting purpose.

On ground, a manual reset to clear a latched fault without application of the complete
related troubleshooting procedure is not allowed, because in some cases a manual reset
may hide existing failure conditions. A simple manual reset may clear the indication,
however the underlying condition may remain present, and can lead to more damage, or
unsafe condition on next flights.

It is essential not to reset tripped circuit breakers prior to performing additional relevant
troubleshooting actions

It is important that manual resets in flight must be performed only on those computers and
systems that are listed in the system reset table of the Airbus operating documentation.

• In-Flight Manual Computer Reset Scenarios

When a system fails during flight, there are several possible scenarios:

The in-flight manual reset can be successful and the system recovered (intermittent failure
condition).
The in-flight manual reset can be unsuccessful confirming a hard failure condition.

All in-flight manual resets must be reported by the flight crew and must be monitored by
maintenance accordingly.

2 March 2018

Recommendations further to in-flight manual computer reset

 Recommendations further to in-flight manual computer reset

• Monitoring of In-Flight Manual Computer Resets

The flight crew report is an important input for the maintenance team and to guide further
the maintenance activity.
The System Reset part of the FCOM Abnormal and Emergency Procedures includes the
following note:

The term “any” includes the number of manual resets.

Flight crews shall specify when several manual resets were performed during the same
flight for a given computer in order to help the maintenance team to identify systemic or
chronic failures.

However, not all manual computer resets are allowed. Flight crew must refer to the
FCOM/QRH Table and apply the following rules:

Maintenance teams should be provided with the FCOM/QRH Table applicable to the
relevant aircraft type in order to inform them about the allowed in-flight manual computer
resets.

• Maintenance activity further to in-flight manual computer reset

Maintenance activity further to an in-flight manual computer reset starts when the manual
reset has been reported by the flight crew.

Any in-flight manual reset must be monitored and reported by the flight crew to the
maintenance, and the monitoring of the reset recurrence must be managed by MCC or
CAMO.

3 March 2018

Recommendations further to in-flight manual computer reset

 Maintenance recommendations further to in-flight manual computer reset

• Successful and unsuccessful in-flight manual computer resets

If a manual computer reset is performed in accordance with the allowable FCOM

procedures and the reset is successful, then the failure is considered as intermittent and
no additional maintenance functional/operational tests of the system are subsequently
required.

In case of unsuccessful in-flight manual reset, the failure is considered as hard and the
troubleshooting must be performed in accordance with the applicable TSM instructions.

• Multiple manual computer resets during the same flight or different flight legs

Note in the TSM computer reset procedure:

If several on-ground resets are needed further to a flight cycle or if several in-flight manual
resets are reported via the log book for a given computer during the same flight leg or
different flight legs, it may indicate a systemic or chronic issue. In that case operators shall
perform the troubleshooting of the affected computer without focusing just on resetting the
computer system.

In case of multiple in-flight manual resets during the same flight or several flight cycles,
the TSM requests the following action:

A common time frame for the three occurrences is not provided due to the variety of the
different aircraft systems, and also aircraft operations. The operator shall decide to launch
full troubleshooting process as soon as possible according to operational constraints.

4 March 2018

Recommendations further to in-flight manual computer reset

 Recommendations further to in-flight manual computer reset

• Conclusion

The TSM provides rules and guidance for maintenance and trouble shooting actions
following in-flight manual computer resets and must be followed.

The FCOM specifies the restricted list of computers for which in-flight manual resets are
allowed.

Monitoring and precise reporting from the flight crew to the maintenance is essential.

It is operator responsibility to apply best practice maintenance for specific circumstances

which are not covered by Airbus documentation.

In case of any doubt, the Airbus Customer Support can be contacted via TechRequest.

Please refer also to the Maintenance Briefing Note on “Repetitive No Fault Found (NFF)
units installed on aircraft can compromise safety”; issued in March 2017.

5 March 2018

Recommendations further to in-flight manual computer reset

 Maintenance Briefing Notes

This Maintenance Briefing Note (MBN) is part of a set of

Briefing Notes that provide an overview of the
applicable standards, techniques, best practices,
human factors, suggested company prevention
strategies and personal lines-of-defense related to
major threats and hazards that may affect maintenance.
This MBN is intended to enhance the reader's safety
awareness but it shall not supersede the applicable
regulations and the Airbus or airline's maintenance
documentation; should any deviation appear between
this MBN and the Airbus or airline’s maintenance
documentation, the latter shall prevail at all times.
In the interest of aviation safety, this MBN may be
reproduced in whole or in part - in all media - or
translated; any use of this MBN shall not modify its
contents or alter an excerpt from its original context.
Any commercial use is strictly excluded. All uses shall
credit Airbus.
Airbus shall have no liability or responsibility for the
use of this MBN, the correctness of the duplication,
adaptation or translation and for the updating and
revision of any duplicated version.

For feedback or suggestions regarding the

Maintenance Briefing Notes please contact:

Uwe Eggerling
Senior Director of Safety
Engineering and Maintenance
Customer Services
Mail to: uwe.eggerling@airbus.com
6 March 2018

Recommendations further to in-flight manual computer reset

Thank you