Smudge I'm sorry if I tarnished your sence of acheivement in saying that anyone can pass a few exams and get SOE, but its all true
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Anyone can read a few text books and anwser questions about what they have only read a few days ago. I read my 2 year old niece "Thomas the Tank engine" and she can name all the characters in the book the next day by more than 75% lets give her a licence for being cute.
And as for SOE thats just going to happen due to the fact that you are performing jobs on an aircraft to make money. WoW you wrote what you did at work down in a pretty pink (showing my age) soe book, well done ,have a trophy
So to get back on topic and try and get my piont across again. Yes what this Tim Fellow did was completely wrong but, you can't honestly think that just because someone has all the correct qualifications they are good at their job? If this was the case why would employers bother having interviews? They would just say "Bring us another LAME they are all equal".
It should not come as a surprise that a fully qualified person could be bad at their chosen profession:
Ever had a bad haircut from a qualified hairdesser? YES!
Ever been mis-diagnosed by a qualified doctor? YES!
Ever been unhappy with a qualified builders work? YES!
So to end my rant. Doing exams and getting SOE are the easiest part of becoming a LAME. Being aware of what you are doing and knowing the difference between being a good engineer and a crap one is the hard part. End of story.