Ahhh, EASA, latest in the long line of acronyms for aviation governance. My first was the ARB, Air Registration Board, which was set up in 1936 to control civil aviation, and my engineer's licence was granted 45 years ago after a three-year course overseen by ARB surveyor C. H. Taylor from Manchester.
Charlie Taylor (of course he was Mr. Taylor to me) had been responsible for keeping 80-odd Tiger Moths in the air at some wartime training station, and knew them inside out. When he had time on his visits to conduct C of A annual inspections he took me around our group Tiger to show me every known point of possible failure and where to find the repair schemes for it. Having passed my written exams, my final hurdle was the oral exam conducted by the ARB surveyor on each type to be added to the licence. My oral on the Tiger lasted almost two hours, double the usual, and he seemed as delighted as I was when he declared I had passed.
About 1971 Mr. Taylor told me that a new body was to replace the ARB and would license me on whole groups of similar aircraft rather than individual types. Of course I was delighted (with exams at £30 a time) but he said it was not all good news as the new systems might not function as well as the old.
Like most of his generation, Mr. Taylor was guarded in his comments but foresaw the vast and expensive bureaucracy that would flourish in the CAA. On one of his last visits before retirement he told me: "I don't think the industry really needs all this administration ... when the weight of the paperwork equals the max takeoff weight of the aircraft, then it's fit to fly".
Decades have passed and I'm long out of touch, but I did hear that one of EASA's triumphs was the introduction of new transponders to display info such as the aircraft registration as well as the usual four-digit squawk and the altitude. Long-suffering aircraft operators forked out thousands of pounds for each installation but hey, it helps safety doesn't it?
Came the day of the great switch-on, and ATC screens over northern Europe were plastered by all the extra info to the extent that individual aircraft were hard to distinguish. Crews were asked to turn off the new mode until requested.
I fear this thread is veering off course again, so I'll say no more other than We had the Best Days!