I know the CAA think we old guys thought we were fireproof but we cared very very much about what we did and I for one always made the right choice,
Unfortunately, others didn't and consequently the legislators made a decision to a: dumb down the training and b: ensure that you must comply with the approved data, or else!
The LAE is not allowed to make a judgement any more. Those days have gone. Hence the insistance that when certifying any task it has to be stated that it has been carried out using approved data and a reference to the data must be recorded within the text of any log book write up.
Just writing IAW AMM/SRM etc is not enough. Chapter and verse are required or a design deviation with a suitable authority.
We may not like it and it can frustrating as all hell to be sat around with plane full of fidgeting passengers and the crew going out of hours, while you wait for a fax from whereever but that is the modern world.
As has been said you do not get paid any more for cutting corners.
