Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 95; Flight Crew Total 2755; Flight Crew Type 1541
Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification; Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Human Factors; Procedure; Environment - Non Weather Related
Prior to this flight; the Captain said he hadn't flown since June; except for a training event at the training center. I had the previous month off; with the exception of a ZZZ2 turn; in which I flew one leg. The aircraft had a complicated description of the deferred number two engine cowl valve stuck open write up. Due to this write up; the number two bleed valve was placarded. Since this was the first ETOPS flight in many months for both the Captain and myself; I handled all the pre-flight duties while the Captain questioned ZZZ station maintenance about the write up. He did this on comm 2; which I had tuned on speaker; so I could try and stay in the loop. The Captain questioned station maintenance twice as to leaving the number two bleed off for flight; and then he instructed me as such. We departed and climbed normally to cruise flight. During the climb I was busy as PM; preparing all that is required for the ETOPS segment; and was having difficulty contacting ZZZ Radio on HF (bad HF day). We eventually re-established radio contact with ZZZ [TRACON] to ask for current HF frequencies; after trying all comm frequencies on the Jepp enroute Comm section. During this time; an ACARS message came across the printer concerning the bleed configuration. I was very busy; and tore it from the printer and handed it directly to the Captain.Once we established cruise flight and handled all the ETOPS requirements; I again reviewed the limitations section of the FM; the ACARS message; and the maintenance release. The maintenance release printed off the ACARS printer (at the gate) such that the four sections of it were not sequential. With two separate; but related write ups; this made reading the maintenance release difficult and confusing. Once I realized that we had configured the bleed system incorrectly; I immediately brought it to the Captain's attention. At first he was hesitant to reconfigure the system. When I showed him the limitation section and cross referenced it with the maintenance release; the logic of reconfiguring the system was clear; and we did so.We continued the flight uneventfully and de-briefed per SOP.
Upon preflight multiple maintenance placards for same system created some discussion. Communicated with Maintenance Control twice to confirm no special operations restrictions. Was assured by Maintenance Control there were none. We took off with pneumatics in ground configuration per MEL. Shortly thereafter in-flight FM investigation determined panel to be set up in normal configuration. We reset it appropriately and continued under normal operations for the remainder of the flight.
Air Carrier flight crew reported they had configured the bleed air system incorrectly before takeoff.