GotTheTshirt..
If you have a licence down in the 11000's and are still practising as a Licensed Engineer, I take my hat off to you for your staying power ! This industry is now about as low as it has been in the brief 30 years I have been doing it and I believe the changes we are going through now in the licensing regulations could well spell the death knell for the aircraft engineering as it has been up to now. I am not aware of a more fundamental change in the time I have been in aviation.
I do not feel threatened by .." letting Private Piots do rectifiction instead of those beastly licensed engineers "... I do however feel threatened by a totally indifferent and uncaring regulationary authority that seemingly wants to squeeze engineers into a life of delivering newspapers. The industry can ill afford to lose your experience and the experience of thousands of others as the number of licence renewals slowly dwindles as time goes on. I would be interested to hear from anyone who could, with authority, put numbers on the amount of engineers leaving the business or who have simply had enough and let their current qualifications lapse. How can we as senior engineers try and promote our industry to young and eager school leavers ( which it desparately needs I might add ) when we have no confidence in it ourselves. I noted an interesting link from spannersatcx regarding the hourly rates of fixing a home PC, astounding, no wonder the kids want now to fix computers and not aeroplanes ( no licence required ! )
I believe unless the CAA wakes up and wakes up fast, they will find a whacking big void in the reservoir of skilled, experienced and qualified professionals in an industry that is bleeding unnoticed to the outside world and the fare paying public that pays our wages ( and theirs !!! ) When your 11000 or something number AME licence plopped through your letter box, did you then wonder if 30 years down the road, you would have to do all that studying again, just to keep something you already worked hard for. I THINK NOT !