From reading the posts it seems to come down to a combination of;
The size of the company you work for,
The contract (client) the aircraft is on,
the country you operate in, &
whether you fly a Class B aircraft at a location with an engineer on site.
I agree, it would be great to have the Engineer (australian term meaning maintainer/mechanic that is used everywhere else) to do the daily inspection and sign the tech log and the pilot (us) do the pre-flight / fuel drain. But, going on the list above and the staffing levels and attitude of the "management / engineers" it just doesn't happen.
In Australia the CASA allows approved "pilot maintenance" to be carried out on Class B aircraft.
http://www.casa.gov.au/download/CAAPs/ops/42zc.pdf There is not supposed to be any pilot maintenance on Class A aircraft (ie Transport Category aircraft).
There used to be things called "Maintenance Authorities" where the pilot was trained to do specific things, like fit winches, hooks, duals and remove/inspect/reinstall chip plugs etc etc, by an engineer and then the application form presented to CASA for approval and finally issued. Have not seen one of these for a very long time. So techinically if it is not in the Class B aircraft approved list you cannot do it.
The Class A aircraft problem confuses everyone and no answers are gained.
Sometimes its a matter of if the engineer won't do it, you have to, (like topping up the oil springs to mind).
Don't talk to me about legalities!
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