Sorry A&C, but I agree with Yogi.
The best LAMEs are worth their weight in gold, but you know as well as we do that there are people out there who don't deserve the right to keep their licenses.Similarly, there are people with permit aircraft (homebuilts, microlights and gliders) with no licenses and utterly perfect aircraft. Just take a walk down the flightline at Cranfield in July.
In law a LAME does not have to do the work on a CofA aircraft, but (s)he must have inspected and signed for it. The real problem is people who decide to bypass that part of the requirement. The sad fact of life is that the people most guilty of this are those least able to get things right.
Personally I think PPLs and QFIs would learn a lot from doing some routine aircraft maintenance, but under the supervision of a qualified Engineer, not on their own!
As to persuading people to behave themselves. Ask three questions, in this order...
(1) Are you qualified to do that
(2) Do you have a family
(3) Do you know that your life insurance may not pay out if they find that you were killed, knowingly flying an illegally modified / maintained aircraft.
That usually does the job in my experience.
G
[ 15 September 2001: Message edited by: Genghis the Engineer ]