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TITLE: Complement to OEB 205/2, 78/2 and 92/2

Incorrect vertical profile during Non precision Approaches

AIRCRAFT TYPE: A318/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340

APPLICABILITY: All aircraft fitted with Thales/GE FMS 2

1. Purpose

This document is a complement to the OEBs 205/2 (A320 family), 78/2 (A330) and 92/2 (A340)
published by Airbus in February 2011.
© AIRBUS S.A.S. 2010. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.

REF: D10035783
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DATE: Feb 4th/2011
REVISION: 01, Feb 4th/2011
 2. Contents

1.  Purpose ......................................................................................................................................... 1 

3.  Introduction................................................................................................................................... 3 
4.  Aircraft impacted by the anomaly ............................................................................................. 3 
5.  Process to determine the impacted NPAs .............................................................................. 4 
5.1  Step 1: Identification of potentially impacted NPAs ................................................. 4 
5.1.1  Use of the list published on AirbusWorld ................................................................. 4 
5.1.2  Review of the Navigation DataBase ........................................................................ 4 
5.2  Step 2: Validation of impacted NPAs by simulator/flight checks .............................. 5 
5.3  Update of the list...................................................................................................... 5 
6  Operational recommendations .................................................................................................. 5 
7  Conclusion/Way forward ............................................................................................................ 6 
© AIRBUS S.A.S. 2010. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.

REF: D10035783
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DATE: Feb 4th/2011
REVISION: 01, Feb 4th/2011
 3. Introduction

Recently, Airbus identified an anomaly on Thales/GE FMS 2 standards installed on A320 and
A330/A340 families.
Investigations enabled to determine that the issue impacts the computation of the FMS vertical
profile when a NPA is performed. If the flight crew uses managed vertical guidance (FINAL APP
mode) to fly the NPA, the aircraft trajectory does not correspond to the approach profile coded in the
Navigation DataBase.
Airbus issued in September 2010 the OEBs 78, 92 and 205 respectively for A330, A340 and A320
family to:
- Inform A320/A330/A340 Operators equipped with the Thales/GE FMS 2 standards of this
anomaly
- Provide Operators with operational recommendations to apply to prevent incorrect vertical
guidance during a non Precision Approach.

This document provides guidelines to ease the application of the OEBs in Flight Operations
Engineering departments.

4. Aircraft impacted by the anomaly

All the aircraft fitted with Thales/GE FMS 2 up to, and including, standards S6 (on A320 family) and
T4 (on A330/A340 family) are impacted by the subject anomaly, which will be corrected in standards
S7 (on A320 family) and T5 (on A330/A340 family). Please refer to the following list.

Notes:
- This list is given for information only in this document and may evolve.
- Certification of S7 and T5 depends on the availability of FG standards, which could impact
the below list.
FMS
FMG(E)C
A/C type Engine type standard’s Mod SB number
standard
name
S4C11 Rev2+ 36562 22-1205
S4C12 Rev2+ 37935 22-1267
CFM
S5C12 Release 1A S5 38781 22-1247
S6C12 Release 1A S6 151355 22-1327
SA
S4I10 Rev2+ 36772 N/A
S4I11 Rev2+ 37252 22-1246
IAE/PW
S5I11 Release 1A S5 38780 22-1268
S6I11 Release 1A S6 151356 22-1361
T2B8 Rev2+ 55352 22-3073
GE T2G0 Rev2+ 57320 RFC/RMO
T4G1 Release 1A T4 57548 TBD
© AIRBUS S.A.S. 2010. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.

T2CD8 Rev2+ 55351 22-3072

A330 22-3084
22-3050
PW/RR
T2HJ0 Rev2+ 57910 RFC/RMO
T3HJ0 Release 1A T3 200286 RFC/RMO
T4HJ1 Release 1A T4 57547 TBD
A340-200/300 T2A10 Rev2+ 55778 22-4056
T2A11 Rev2+ 55353 22-4060
A340-500/600 T2E7 Rev2+ 55354 22-5011
T2K0 Rev2+ 57911 RFC/RMO

REF: D10035783
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DATE: Feb 4th/2011
REVISION: 01, Feb 4th/2011
 5. Process to determine the impacted NPAs

This process is composed of two steps:

- Identification of potentially impacted NPAs
- Validation of the impacted NPAs through simulator or flight checks.

5.1 Step 1: Identification of potentially impacted NPAs

2 solutions exist to identify the potentially impacted NPAs, respectively described in paragraphs
5.1.1 and 5.1.2. The operators may choose the solution the most adapted to their Flight operations
engineering organization.

5.1.1 Use of the list published on AirbusWorld

A tool developed in collaboration with Thales and GE enables to directly identify the potentially
impacted NPA.

The tool performs the following:

- Extraction of approaches coded with a FPA and an AT OR ABOVE altitude constraint at the FAF
- Mathematical calculation of the FPA-based altitude of the FAF (in order to compare it with the FAF
altitude constraint)
- Add a margin to FMS real computation and rounding to be conservative
- Identifies the impacted approaches

As a result, this tool identifies a list of approaches impacted by the subject OEBs. The operator can
use this list to dispatch operational recommendations to their flight crew community.

This list will be available through AirbusWorld e-site from March 2011 and is planned to be reviewed
every AIRAC cycle, i.e. on a monthly basis.

5.1.2 Review of the Navigation DataBase

In addition to the previous solution which consists in reviewing the Navigation DataBase, Airbus proposes an
alternate possibility indentify the potentially impacted NPAs.
The operator can identify a sub-list of potentially impacted NPAs with a review of all Non Precision
Approaches coded in the operator’s Navigation DataBase.

Please find hereunder an illustrated example on how to search and identify the NPAs potentially
impacted by the issue.

For this example, we use the Disk Generation Tool (DGT), which is the GE’s tool. Any other
Navigation Database reader is acceptable.
© AIRBUS S.A.S. 2010. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.

In DGT, it is possible to extract the list of all NPAs. Then, the operator can list the NPAs for which:
- The FAF has an “AT OR ABOVE” altitude constraint and
- A FPA is coded on the FAF
See extract from DGT tool:

REF: D10035783
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DATE: Feb 4th/2011
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 This gives a sub-list of potentially impacted NPAs. However, this check does not compare the FAF
altitude constraint with its FPA-based altitude. As a consequence, there is a need for a second step
to ensure if the NPA is really impacted or not.

Note: A mathematical calculation of the FPA-based altitude of the FAF (in order to compare it with
the FAF altitude constraint) is not representative of the FMS real computation and rounding
(especially for cases where both altitudes are close one to each other).

5.2 Step 2: Validation of impacted NPAs by simulator/flight checks

When a list of potentially impacted NPAs is established, each procedure of this list should be
validated to confirm if the FMS vertical profile respects or not the coded FPA.
This validation can be performed by simulator or with an aircraft when the weather conditions are
VMC (Visual Meteorological Conditions).

A NPA is considered as impacted if the scenario described in the OEBs happens, which means:
- The FPA coded at the FAF is ignored and the aircraft performs a descent (generally at IDLE)
before the FAF, towards the FAF constraint altitude.
- Once at the FAF constraint altitude, the aircraft performs a level off until the interception of the
originally coded profile
Through all these observations, FINAL APP is engaged and the VDEV is close to 0.

5.3 Update of the list

The operator should keep an up-to-date list of the impacted NPAs. For each new AIRAC cycle, the
© AIRBUS S.A.S. 2010. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.

operator should check if the NPAs that are modified in the new Navigation DataBase cycle are
impacted or not (some impacted NPAs could become non-impacted, and the other way round).
Otherwise, the operator could refer to the list provided on the AirbusWorld e-site.

6 Operational recommendations

The recommendations provided in the OEBs 205 (A320 family), 78 (A330) and 92 (A340) depend
on the availability of a list for the flight crew.
Refer to the OEBs 205/2, 78/2 and 92/2 for more details.

REF: D10035783
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 7 Conclusion/Way forward

The issue described in the OEBs is planned to be corrected in the next FMS 2 Release 1A “S7” for
A320 family and “T5” for A330/A340..

If no action can be taken by Flight Operations engineering, i.e. the proposed Navigation DataBase
review cannot be performed, the use of selected vertical guidance should become mandatory for all
NPAs, pending the availability of the next FMS standards.
© AIRBUS S.A.S. 2010. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.

REF: D10035783
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DATE: Feb 4th/2011
REVISION: 01, Feb 4th/2011
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REF: D10035783
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DATE: Feb 4th/2011
REVISION: 01, Feb 4th/2011