A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Other / Unknown; Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance
General Maintenance Action
Human Factors; Logbook Entry; Manuals; Procedure; Aircraft
During preflight I discovered a small nick on a fan blade on #1 engine. As the Captain was not on the flight deck; I called Maintenance. When the Captain returned I informed him of the issue and he left the flight deck; evidently to see for himself. When he returned he informed me that he and the two maintenance personnel agreed that the nick was small enough that no action was necessary. I asked if anyone actually looked the specs up in a manual for the size of the nick as it has been my experience that even small nicks need to be dressed. The Captain insisted that he and the maintenance personnel agreed no action was required. I communicated several times my concern that they needed to check a manual and that he should write it up.The Captain; now visibly angry with me; suggested that I could get off the trip if I desired and he and I could have a conference with the Chief Pilot. In retrospect; I should have removed myself from the flight; however; concern over the impact on my income and the fact that it was a small nick and likely not a safety of flight issue led me to continue. The remainder of the flight and our return were uneventful. As the Captain did not choose to discuss the issue enroute; as we left the aircraft at the end of the trip; I again stated my concerns over how he handled the situation. He reiterated his position that Maintenance agreed with his viewpoint and he left the flight deck [for] home. For my own edification; I called Maintenance out to look at the nick. The Mechanic that arrived saw the nick and could not say off-hand whether it was too small to be concerned about; however; he went to the manual to check. While he was checking; the outgoing First Officer arrived and I showed him the blade nick. At this point the Mechanic returned and said that action was indeed required. I asked the outgoing First Officer to leave me a note regarding the outcome of the maintenance. The First Officer sent me a note later that said; in part; 'I think it's obvious from the sign-off; Maintenance didn't consider it a minor thing. We only got the logbook back about 5 minutes before pushback.'In short; I think my Captain resented a challenge to his authority; because this was probably the third or fourth time during the trip that I found a maintenance item that required action and inconvenienced the crew somewhat. On our third day I found several larger blade nicks that most definitely required maintenance and on the last day of our trip I found a crack in the First Officer's sliding window handle making its operation in an emergency questionable and forcing us to swap airplanes; thus incurring a delay. I believe he was just tired of me finding discrepancies during my preflight which would explain why he went out to meet the mechanics [regarding the blade nick].The two mechanics who came to the aircraft never sought my opinion. As I was cut out of the loop; I must assume that they simply conferred with the Captain. If he made it clear that he didn't think it was worth a write-up it's quite possible that the mechanics assumed it was okay as well without actually checking themselves. Also; I think he simply did not want any 'problems' on the last two legs of the trip that might make us in late.
After the First Officer finished the walk around he said there was a ding on one of the turbine blades in number 1 engine. I called Operations for a Mechanic to check it out. The two mechanics and I saw what appeared to be a very small indentation on one of the blades. They both said the indentation was well within limits so we departed with no further action.
A clash developed between a First Officer and his Captain regarding how and whether to engage Maintenance on small discrepancies; the severity of which they disagreed.