A320 captain refuses aircraft due to nose wheel steering disconnect button inoperative and MEL'ed.

Attributes
ACN	819772
Time
Date	200901
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 10000 Flight Crew Type 4000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe

Narrative:

Refused plane for captain's 'nosewheel steering disconnect button inoperative.' reason for this report is to encourage review of this MEL as I believe it sets a crew up for a dangerous condition; i.e. Captain is steering with rudder on landing or takeoff and spurious unwanted inputs cause uncommanded activation of nosewheel disconnect.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Captain refuses aircraft due to nose wheel steering disconnect button inoperative and MEL'ed.

Narrative: Refused plane for Captain's 'Nosewheel Steering Disconnect Button Inoperative.' Reason for this report is to encourage review of this MEL as I believe it sets a crew up for a dangerous condition; i.e. Captain is steering with rudder on landing or takeoff and spurious unwanted inputs cause uncommanded activation of nosewheel disconnect.

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.