Originally Posted by Flying Lawyer
Other roles in the industry have their own forums. They aren't restricted - but they don’t suffer from the problem of unqualified people ruining discussions by posting uninformed, and often provocative, drivel which detracts and distracts from the discussion.
Well, that's not entirely true. The simple fact is that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing in ANY field; airline pilots are certainly not the only people who will find the partially informed seeking to educate them about their own discipline. As a (presumed) lawyer, I'm sure you must get plenty of people explaining to you how the law is, or should be, for example .... and I'm sure some of those people are themselves pilots. We all like to pontificate on matters outside our own sphere of knowledge; it's a rare person who will simply say "Sorry, I don't know much about topic X, I'll pass on that discussion"
Originally Posted by Flying Lawyer
Engineers?
I no longer understand what is meant by ‘Engineer’. Maybe Flight Engineers only – although there aren’t many of those left
Most people in this discussion are using it in the context of LAEs - the people licensed to perform maintenance activities on the aircraft. It's also capable of extension to the whole design community, but we don't get licensed so would present an almost insurmountable obstacle to any kind of vetting process.