Narrative:

Once aligned on the runway; I set the brakes and transferred control of the aircraft to the first officer. This was done in full compliance with SOP. When we received takeoff clearance; I acknowledged it; the first officer released the brakes and pushed the power up. As I had been scanning the runway when the takeoff clearance was received; I glanced down at the engine instruments for an initial check when I took the throttles from the first officer. I again scanned the runway and as I felt we were getting close to 80 KTS; looked down at my pfd for the airspeed. The pfd was completely washed out in the bright sunlight and unreadable. I reached down to ensure that the pfd was selected 'full bright' and it was. I then determined that I could make out the V speed indicators on the pfd and we continued for a normal takeoff. I have been flying the A320 for years as a captain and have seen bad pfds; but not one that was this bad. I wrote up the pfd enroute to den as 'extremely dim and unreadable in bright sunlight.' furthermore; another indication that this pfd was going bad is that with the brightness knob backed off on 25%; the pfd was dark. We terminated in den and I followed up on the maintenance action that was taken with this aircraft. The pfd was signed off as 'ok per outbound crew.' this is unsatisfactory for a number of different reasons. The conditions in den were not anywhere close to the conditions that I encountered in the bright sunlight. Further; the indication of the brightness knob needing to be turned past 3/4 to see any pfd indications is another red flag that this instrument is going bad. I find it unacceptable that this pfd has not been replaced. It is a safety issue and just because the aircraft is going to fly at dusk on its next leg does not mean the pfd is serviceable. As a captain if a pfd was written up inbound to me; I would trust the inbound captain's decision to write it up knowing that he had a legitimate problem with the pfd.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 Captain wrote up his PFD enroute as being too dim even at maximum brightness; but at the next stop the outbound Captain said it was normal; and maintenance cleared the item.

Narrative: Once aligned on the runway; I set the brakes and transferred control of the aircraft to the First Officer. This was done in full compliance with SOP. When we received takeoff clearance; I acknowledged it; the First Officer released the brakes and pushed the power up. As I had been scanning the runway when the takeoff clearance was received; I glanced down at the engine instruments for an initial check when I took the throttles from the First Officer. I again scanned the runway and as I felt we were getting close to 80 KTS; looked down at my PFD for the airspeed. The PFD was completely washed out in the bright sunlight and unreadable. I reached down to ensure that the PFD was selected 'Full Bright' and it was. I then determined that I could make out the V speed indicators on the PFD and we continued for a normal takeoff. I have been flying the A320 for years as a Captain and have seen bad PFDs; but not one that was this bad. I wrote up the PFD enroute to DEN as 'extremely dim and unreadable in bright sunlight.' Furthermore; another indication that this PFD was going bad is that with the brightness knob backed off on 25%; the PFD was dark. We terminated in DEN and I followed up on the maintenance action that was taken with this aircraft. The PFD was signed off as 'OK per outbound crew.' This is unsatisfactory for a number of different reasons. The conditions in DEN were not anywhere close to the conditions that I encountered in the bright sunlight. Further; the indication of the brightness knob needing to be turned past 3/4 to see any PFD indications is another red flag that this instrument is going bad. I find it unacceptable that this PFD has not been replaced. It is a safety issue and just because the aircraft is going to fly at dusk on its next leg does not mean the PFD is serviceable. As a Captain if a PFD was written up inbound to me; I would trust the inbound Captain's decision to write it up knowing that he had a legitimate problem with the PFD.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of May 2009 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.