A320
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 170; Flight Crew Total 7480; Flight Crew Type 2785
Troubleshooting; Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
At FL270; while at cruise altitude inbound to our destination; we had an electrical power transient that disconnected the Autopilot-1 (AP1) and flickered the Captain's PFD; ND; and upper ECAM. The system reset by itself with no apparent lasting effect. Within about 10-minutes; the same incident reoccurred with additional results of GEN-1 FAULT ECAM and a loss of ability to transmit on any VHF radio despite using all microphones and checking all connections. We attempted to ACARS Dispatch; but they didn't understand our shorthand message. Due to the close proximity to [our destination] and the complications of complying with clearances without transmission capability; our time was focused on continuing to navigate and get the aircraft to [our destination] safely.We complied with all clearances and managed to acknowledge all transmissions by ATC using our Transponder IDENT function. We elected not to complete the GEN-1 ECAM as we believed the automatic process of the GEN-1 trying to reconnect to the electrical bus was creating our communications problems. We elected to put the GEN-1 switch into the 'OFF' position and leave it there to prevent a reconnect of the Generator to the Bus System. Our transmission ability was restored with GEN-1 offline. We verified that GEN-2 was fully powering all busses and systems. The APU was started; but the APU GEN was not connected to the bus for the same reasoning as GEN-1. The VMC conditions facilitated our descent and approach into our destination without incident. The GEN-1 Generator Control Unit (GCU) was found faulty by Maintenance and replaced. Aircraft System Malfunction. Electrical Power. Single Generator Failure.
A320 First Officer describes an inflight event caused by an electrical power transient that disconnected the Autopilot-1 (AP1) and flickered the Captain's PFD; ND; upper ECAM; a GEN-1 FAULT ECAM and loss of VHF radio. GEN-1 was manually positioned to 'OFF' to prevent GEN Auto-reconnect. VHF restored. Generator Control Unit (GCU) for Generator-1 found faulty by Maintenance and replaced.