An A320 captain reports a situation where his company's maintenance put an A320 back into service af...

Narrative:

This jet spent 2 days at the hangar while maintenance attempted to find the problem causing an aileron fault. They ultimately replaced the aileron servo; elac-1 and both side stick transducers. After both engines started and after the flight control check; we taxied. During taxi; elac-1 failed again. We went to the box (holding area); conferred with dispatch and maintenance control and returned to the gate. Maintenance did all they could; meaning they checked the computers; reset the elac and ran a CAT III test. All worked fine. Because of the history of the elac and aileron issue; I was going to refuse the airplane and I told the maintenance supervisor that. Here's the thing...the idea that this anomaly was not related to the previous problems is statistically almost impossible. I've flown the airbus for 5 years; and I think this is the second elac failure I've ever experienced; the other one was during a power transfer. To me; I find it disturbing that the company put the A320 back into service after nothing more than a computer reset. As I mentioned before; it is almost impossible that this problem is not related to the previous problem; yet we ignore the big picture (the history of this problem) with a; 'well it checks ok now attitude.'

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 Captain reports a situation where his company's Maintenance put an A320 back into service after nothing more than a reset of the ELAC Computer after he returned to the gate for another ELAC-1 failure. The aircraft had just spent two days in the hangar for a previous Aileron fault.

Narrative: This jet spent 2 days at the hangar while Maintenance attempted to find the problem causing an Aileron fault. They ultimately replaced the Aileron Servo; ELAC-1 and both side stick transducers. After both engines started and after the flight control check; we taxied. During taxi; ELAC-1 failed again. We went to the box (holding area); conferred with Dispatch and Maintenance Control and returned to the gate. Maintenance did all they could; meaning they checked the Computers; reset the ELAC and ran a CAT III test. All worked fine. Because of the history of the ELAC and Aileron issue; I was going to refuse the airplane and I told the Maintenance Supervisor that. Here's the thing...the idea that this anomaly was NOT related to the previous problems is statistically almost impossible. I've flown the Airbus for 5 years; and I think this is the second ELAC failure I've ever experienced; the other one was during a power transfer. To me; I find it disturbing that the company put the A320 back into service after nothing more than a computer reset. As I mentioned before; it is almost impossible that this problem is not related to the previous problem; yet we ignore the big picture (the history of this problem) with a; 'well it checks OK now attitude.'

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.

Attributes
ACN	844143
Time
Date	200907
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Dawn
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Aileron Control System
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250 Flight Crew Total 11000 Flight Crew Type 3500
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

An A320 captain reports a situation where his company's maintenance put an A320 back into service after nothing more than a reset of the elac computer after he returned to the gate for another elac-1 failure. The aircraft had just spent two days in the hangar for a previous aileron fault.