Today during a flight with the Fenix A321 while cruising at FL350 and about halfway into the trip (KMCO-CYUL), under very normal flight conditions the AP disconnected and I received ECAM message "AUTO FLT AP OFF".  I tried reconnecting the AP but nothing worked.  I searched for this message in the QRH but I did not get a hit.  I then searched for just "AP OFF", no hits.  I took this approach because on the Boeing side, this is how I resolve error conditions and have done it successfully quite a few times using the B738 QRH.  I also looked in the MCDU MAINTENANCE section under Failures, nothing there either.  I managed to complete the flight and land in bad weather conditions and low visibility but it was an ugly landing.

In this super-automated Airbus world, how are such failures supposed to be addressed and resolved, especially in-flight failures ?  I would appreciate some direction on this question because as you can imagine resolving these is critical to avoid a doomed flight. 

 

1 hour ago, zachlog said:

I received ECAM message "AUTO FLT AP OFF".

Did you tried to turn on  Autopilot 2?  it could be a failure in one of the FCU channels.

37 minutes ago, polosim said:

 

Did you tried to turn on  Autopilot 2?  it could be a failure in one of the FCU channels.

Yes, this was one of the actions in attempting to reconnect the AP.  It did not work.

8 hours ago, zachlog said:

this was one of the actions in attempting

Yes, I read in your comment that you tried to reconnect the autopilot, my question is: What if you tried to reconnect the "other" Autopilot, that is, the AP2.

In the Airbus A320 the autopilot has two channels one works with the AP1 and the other with the AP2, if one of these channels fails we can use the other. When the two channels fail, several things happen that are totally noticeable and distinguishable.

On some occasions, depending on the failure, it is still possible to replace one or both failed channels through the System Reset procedure included in the QRH.

It's a well known problem. WASM crash. Visit Fenix Discord for more info. You can't cure it now. Plus it's very unpredictable. Patch is expected.

Yes, I had tried reconnecting to both AP1 and AP2, no response.

The procedures in the System Reset table you are referencing is precisely what I was expecting to find when I did a search in the QRH and did not get any hits.  After your latest post, I went directly to the System Reset table and again looked for a procedure that addresses the AP disconnect issue.  There are all sorts of other conditions but I don't see anything for the APs.

I guess the reason for my post is not just for this AP failure but also a broader question of how to use the A32x QRH.  If there is no direct link from the ECAM message to the recovery action in the QRH, then how does one locate the recovery action, and quickly, when flying the A/C manually at FL350 ?  The term "AP  OFF", i.e., the link to the recovery action, is not there.  Other AUTO FLT conditions are there but not this one.  Also, compared to the B738 QRH the A32x QRH is much more acronym-happy.  How do I find out what each acronym means ?  What's C/B, PB, etc. ?  Any guidance you can provide on using the QRH is appreciated.

10 minutes ago, Vitold69 said:

It's a well known problem. WASM crash. Visit Fenix Discord for more info. You can't cure it now. Plus it's very unpredictable. Patch is expected.

OK, thanks.

2 hours ago, Vitold69 said:

It's a well known problem. WASM crash. Visit Fenix Discord for more info. You can't cure it now. Plus it's very unpredictable. Patch is expected.

Strange, i have flown the Fenix A320 since it launched and have never seen this at all.

7 minutes ago, Simselli said:

Strange, i have flown the Fenix A320 since it launched and have never seen this at all.

This problem occurred with the A321.

1 hour ago, zachlog said:

This problem occurred with the A321.

I fly all versions, I just mentioned A320 as that was the base aircraft.

16 hours ago, zachlog said:

I received ECAM message "AUTO FLT AP OFF".

IRL

There are many failures that lead to the loss of the Autopilot as a secondary failure, for failures that there is a procedure to solve it, these will be listed in the System Reset table that we mentioned above, in the case of not having the option to recover the Autopilot, the message becomes a Crew Awareness, which means that manual control of the aircraft will be required.

8 hours ago, zachlog said:

If there is no direct link from the ECAM message to the recovery action in the QRH, then how does one locate the recovery action, and quickly, when flying the A/C manually at FL350 ?

Keep in mind that this is just one of the ways that a (non-shared-cockpit) simmer has a harder job than a real-life crew. In real life, the PF would be flying the plane while the PM looks for the appropriate section of the QRH.

8 hours ago, zachlog said:

How do I find out what each acronym means ?  What's C/B, PB, etc. ?

These two, specifically, are "circuit breaker" and "pushbutton". The way a real-life pilot would become familiar with these is through the FCTM and FCOM (which I presume also includes a glossary). I'm not sure if these are publicly available for the A320 though.

I think the fundamental issue you're running into, as @polosim points out, is that in the real aircraft, if the autopilot disconnected due to some system failure, you would get an additional ECAM message for that system failure, which you could then action. From what others have posted, it sounds as if the behavior you're seeing (an autopilot disconnect "out of the blue") is due to a known bug.

As a point of interest, does anyone know if it's permissible to dispatch an A320 with both autopilots inoperative? I know a bizjet pilot who told me about an instance where they had to operate one of their aircraft for several weeks with an inop autopilot - which was legal, but a pain. (For one thing, they had to stay below RVSM airspace.) 

Edited November 5, 20241 yr by martinboehme

The absence of secondary ECAM message(s) did appear strange at the time of the failure but even stranger was the absence of "AP OFF" in the QRH but now I understand the situation.  Thanks to all for the feedback.