I'm new to the 320. The Vol 2 is horrible--1600 pages! And just try a search query on the Surface Tablet--I've seen it bog down actually to searching at a rate of one page a second. Let's see, 1600 pages divided by one page a second...and therefore no one uses it.

What is particularly amusing is that all our ECAM screens in the airplane are in color (very nice feature of course). The Vol 2 depiction of the same screen is in gray scale! Why? Especially because some of the different colors actually mean something important.

That said, the A320 fleet team publications are outstanding. I have learned a lot from all the excellent resources out there, from all the different reference materials from the training page, as well as the monthly fleet news and topics of interest.

The 320 Vol 2 used to have full color diagrams and used to be somewhat useful. Just guessing that other manuals in the DAL fleet had no color and they made the AB manual match instead of going the other way.
I'll sell you my old color one😜

I have original an Airbus FCOM from 2004 (I went through school at Airbus MIA with Indy Air.)

They're locked in my safe, to be used if I'm fortunate enough to be awarded 320A in any upcoming MOAB (which I'm hearing was Jan, then Feb, now Mar ...)

Lawyers got involved.

Wroooooooong. DAL used to have really nice full color pages with system layouts and all that. As a matter of fact, we went thru this crap 5 years before the NWA merger. We went from those same kind of manuals to the crap Boeing manuals. And from what I have been reading, Airbus manuals have always sucked, and the newest one sucks donkey balls as well. Can't blame THAT on Delta.

When are you guys reading this thing you call "Vol 2"? As far as I can tell, I'm never paid to read that document, and am never obligated to know anything in there that isn't duplicated in the LOD. Maybe I've just got a bad attitude, but I am more than happy to do just about anything my employer pays me to do. Beyond that, my time is for my friends and family.

Wasn't blaming anyone. Yes the AB manuals have always sucked and still suck now. That's why NW went their own way and created their own manuals. I guess we are afraid of litigation from having anything that is uniquely our own.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that because DL (and, by extension, the FAA) only expects you to know enough to pass the eSV and oral (recall items, limitations and walk-around slides). However, you have quite succinctly illustrated the difference in mentality between a professional and an hourly wage earner.

Well said. My response to that was going to be less polite.

That's fair.

I know plenty of folks who want this job to be more than the blue collar job it is (IMHO). Been there / done that elsewhere. It definitely pays better than most... but we are, after all, hourly wage earners. Delta continually reminds me of that in ways aplenty.

And believe it or not, I really am curious why people are reading it. If it's just for the personal fulfillment that comes from in-depth knowledge of how a machine works, that's one thing (and I'll pass - too much I don't know about the rest of the world). If it's to learn something they should have learned in training... that will effect a safer operation... shouldn't we move to make it required reading? I've trusted the system that tells me I don't need to know anything in there; am I wrong?