First time I have been on this forum and a few observations about maintenance
1. Most maint organisations have very few licenced engineers, most work is done by grease monkeys and signed off by licenced engineers
2. Practically speaking your average ac and light helicopter are not complicated and do use automotive parts eg Hughes 300 starter motor is a GM part which costs about $ 50, because it is aviation it costs $ 450
3. The CAA is not interested in checking engineers or you as pilots it only wants to look at paperwork ( area office guys don't like getting hands dirty )
4. The ANO does state pilots are allowed to use non special tools on aircraft, ah I hear you ask what is a non special tool???
5. As pilots you can be authorised to do limited jobs eg oil changes regreasings etc etc.
6. The most worrying of all is we will be doing our own maintenance soon as the CAA is not interested in aiding people to come into the industry. To give an example of how the Campaign against Aviation goes about this, my fully licenced helicopter engineer attended the Bell Textron maintenance couse in the USA on the Jetranger. The CAA have refused to licencee him as they do not approve of the course - but what do Bell know they just make the bloody things !!!
AS you might have guessed by now the CAA's stated aim is to show a profit first.
Perhaps when our regulatory body gets its arse into gear problems such as pilots doing their own maintenance will start to go away :o :o