Data from the ADIRS and FMGC is fed directly into three display management computers (DMCs). Normally DMC1 supplies the Captain's EFIS and the ECAM DUs and DMC2 supplies the FO's EFIS, with DMC3 being used as a selectable backup. DMC2 will automatically take over the ECAM DUs if required.
Do not fly with only one flight director selected on.
Rad alt displayed below 2500ft
On the PFD, items colour coded magenta indicate that the FMGS is managing the item and blue items indicate that an item has been manually selected on the FCU.
Airspeed index is yellow line and triangle. A speed trend arrow, also yellow, gives the speed in 10 seconds time.
During take-off, V1 is shown in blue and V2 is shown in magenta. They are shown as numbers when they are above the displayed scale, and appear on the scale as a blue "1" and a magenta triangle respectively. Immediately after take-off, the flight director commands V2+10 kt, so the aircraft speed will be greater than the magenta triangle. Minimum flap retraction speed (F speed) is shown as a green F. Flap limit speed is shown by a barber's pole. As flaps are retracted to flap 1, minimum slat retraction speed (S speed) is indicated by a green S.
Once flaps are retracted the barber's pole indicates Vmo of 350kt when below approximately 25,000ft and Mmo of M0.82 when above. A MACH indicator appears once M0.5 is achieved.
When clean, a green circle indicates "green dot speed. This is the best lift:drag.
During FMGS managed decent, the magenta managed speed indicator splits to indicate that a range of speeds may be used to maintain correct path.
When below 15,000ft ?in a descent?, two amber bars indicate "Vfe next", the maximum speed for deployment of the next stage of flap.
Protection speeds are displayed as a solid red bar and two amber hollow boxes (see {TODO: get reference}).
On the altimeter scale, the red ribbon indicates a ground reference derived from the rad alt. In the final stages of approach, this is augmented with an FMGS database landing elevation indicated by a blue line across the altimeter. When outside the displayed scale, the target altitude is shown either above or below the altimeter as applicable. It will show in feet when QNH is selected and as a flight level (e.g. "FL330" when STD is selected). When within the displayed scale, it is shown on the altimeter with a target box to the left. It will be magenta if the restriction originates from the FMGS and blue if selected on the FCU. The baro setting is shown in blue below the altimeter. Standard pressure setting is indicated by "STD" when the baro reference selector is pulled.
The vertical speed is displayed in amber when high.
On the compass display, a green diamond indicates track and a yellow line indicates heading. Selected heading appears as a blue triangle or a figure on the appropriate side if outside the displayed scale.
When an ILS is selected, the frequency and ident appear in magenta in the bottom left corner, along with DME range if available. The front course appears on the compass display in magenta, either as a figure when outside the compass scale or as a dagger when within. Localiser and glideslope deviation is shown by a hollow magenta diamond on deviation bars.
Ground speed, air speed and wind data are displayed in the top left of the ND in all modes. Magnetic heading is a fixed yellow line. Selected heading or track is displayed as a blue triangle when within displayed scale or blue digits when not. Actual track is shown by a green track diamond.
Rose ILS mode shows standard magenta course bar incorporating localiser deviation and white glideslope deviation scale with a magenta diamond indicator. Frequency course and ident are shown in the top right corner.
Rose VOR mode gives a blue course deviation bar. Course must be set in the MCDU RAD NAV page. VOR data is shown in the top right of the ND.
Bearing pointers are selected on the EFIS control panel and are shown in white for VOR and green for ADF. #1 pointers are single lined and #2 pointers are double lined. Ident and range information are shown in the bottom corners of the ND. A small white M next to this information indicates manual selection of the aid.
Rose NAV mode dispalys a map oriented to the aircraft. The range selector sets the diameter of the map. Planned track is shown in green and waypoints are shown in blue. Id, range and ETA for the next waypoint are shown in the top right corner.
Arc mode is the normal mode, displaying the forward 90° of the map shown by rose NAV mode. The range selector now sets the distance from the aircraft to the edge of the map.
Additional data points for airports, NDBs, VORs and Waypoints can be shown in map modes by selecting pushbuttons on the EFIS control panel. These data points show in magenta.
Data from certain aircraft system sensors is routed directly to the ECAM channel in the three DMCs. The majority of the data, however, is routed to the two System Data Acquisition Concentrators (SDACs), for processing. The SDACs then provide system page data to the DMCs. Normally, DMC1 supplies the E/WD, DMC2 supplies the SD and DMC3 is available as a backup. Two Flight Warning Computers (FWCs) receive data directly from aircraft sensors to generate red warnings and receive data from the SDACs to generate amber warnings. The FWCs control the attention getters and aural alerts and send data to the DMCs for display of alert messages.
Failure of a single FWC generates a Level 1 caution, since there is a redundant system available. This will, however, downgrade the aicraft to Cat III single. It will also lead to only one half of the Master Caution and Master Warning lights illuminating. The loss of both FWCs will remove all automatic monitoring of the aircraft systems. The ECAM system pages and overhead panels must be monitored for local failure indications.
The EMER CANC button can be used to supress the caution associated with an intermittant nuisance warning. Pressing and holding the RCL key for 3 seconds will unsupress the caution.
Information on the ECAM displays is colour coded:
A normal condition
Abnormal indication requiring crew awareness but not immediate action.
Serious parameter exceedance or warnings that requires immediate crew action.
The ECAM system divides the flight into various stages. If a warning occuring in the take-off or landing phase can be delayed, it is inhibited until a less critical stage of flight is reached.
ECAM warnings are presented in various ways depending on severity:
If a parameter approaches its limit, the relevant SD page is brought up and the parameter pulses, but remains green to indicate that no exceedance has yet taken place.
A loss of redundancy or a loss of a system that does not affect the safety of the flight has occured. An amber message is displayed on the E/WD. As the fault only requires crew awareness, the handling of the fault can be delayed if required. Pressing the CLR key on the ECAM control panel will move the message to the status page, which will be brought up. The status page is then reviewed and subsequently removed by pressing either a CLR key or the STS key.
A failure that hasn't any direct consequence on flight safety. This is similar to a level 1 alert, except the crew is alerted by illumination of the master caution light and an aural warning. Pressing the master caution light extinguishes it.
A failure that requires immediate crew action. The red master warning illuminates and a continuous chime sounds. Pressing the master warning light extinguishes it, stops the chimes and resets the alerting system. In this case, the messages shown on the E/WD are in red.
ECAM displays the failure message on the E/WD in order of priority, so that high priority failures are dealt with before low priority failures. It is possible that a high priority failure will be placed above a failure that you are currently running the actions for.
A white MAINTENANCE message on the ECAM status page does not mean that the aircraft is unserviceable, only that a particular procedure is required at the next programmed servicing.
A boxed failure indication is a primary failure that has associated secondary failures. The secondary failures are indicated in the right hand column by starred items.
The upper area of the E/WD display is used for main engine parameters, fuel on board (FOB) and slat/flap positions. The lower part of the E/WD display is normally used to show memos. If a failure occurs, the memos are replaced by warning/ caution messages and a series of blue action items. Boxed failures indicate a primary failure that will affect other systems. Starred failures on the right of the memo area are secondary failures.
Approximately two minutes after engine start, a takeoff memo appears. The items on this memo put the aircraft into a suitable configuration for takeoff.
During the takeoff phase, a magenta T.O. INHIBIT message appears. This indicates that some warnings and cautions are now inhibited. T.O. INHIBIT is in effect from application of T.O. thrust up to 1500ft AAL or 2 minutes after lift off.
On passing 1500ft in the descent, a landing memo is displayed.
At approximately 800ft, a LDG INHIBIT message appears. This indicates that the vast majority of warnings and cautions have been inhibited for the landing phase.
There is a permanent area at the bottom of the SD. This always displays TAT, SAT, time and gross weight.
The SD page automatically provides pilots with information on a "need to know basis".
An aircraft STATUS page may be displayed to check the state of the aircraft. The content of this page varies depending on what failures are present, but may contain limitations, approach procedures, information and inoperative systems. If the status page is not clear, a white boxed STS legend appears at the bottom of the E/WD display, and, if there are any messages affecting approach and landing, the status page will automatically be displayed when the slats are extended. If the status page has a green overflow arrow at the bottom, pressing a CLR key will display the next page.
The pilot interface for the ECAM display is the ECAM Control Panel on the pedestal. The middle two lines of buttons manually bring up their associated ECAM page. When manually selected, the button lights up, and pushing it again will remove the page and allow the automatic sequencing of pages.
The RCL button, when pressed for at least three seconds, recalls any warnings or cautions that have been cleared since the last power up. If there is nothing to recall, a NORMAL message will be displayed on the E/WD.
The T.O. CONFIG key is used to carry out a takeoff configuration check prior to takeoff. This simulates setting of takeoff power, and generates a warning if the aircraft is not in a proper takeoff configuration.
In general, the PFD has priority over the ND and the E/WD has priority over the SD.
Normally, DMC1 supplies the Captain's PFD and ND, and the E/WD. DMC2 supplies the FO's PFD and ND, and the SD. DMC3 is a backup.
If a DMC fails, all information is removed from the displays it controls and replaced by a white diagonal line to indicate a working display with a failed source. ECAM will detect the failure and provide a sequence of alerts. Due to the priority rules, the E/WD display will move to the lower DU if it was DMC1 that failed. The EIS DMC switch is used to replace the failed DMC with DMC3.
In the event display failures, there will be no white diagonal. The displays have priority rules so that the remaining displays are utilised most effectively. The PFDs have priority over the NDs unless a PFD/ND switch on the misc panels is pushed. The E/WD has priority over the SD. The ECAM screens can be given priority over an ND with the ECAM/ND XFER switch.
A single screen ECAM mode is available. This displays the E/WD, but can be made to display an SD page for a maximum of 30 seconds by pushing and holding the relevant page button on the ECP. If an advisory condition occurs, the page is not automatically displayed. Instead the page button lights up and a boxed ADV message is shown on the E/WD. If an ECAM warning or caution is triggered, again there is no automatic page display. The normal aural and visual indications are given. The underlined word in the warning indicates which SD page needs to be viewed. The page should be checked both before and after running the ECAM actions, and the status page will have to be called manually. The status page can be displayed for a maximum of three minutes. On the approach, the STS message pulses to indicate that the crew should manually call and review the status page.