But Peter there is no engineers about.
In my part of the world the other “alternative” engineering company is bloody miles away and is not allowed by their CAA ops inspector to except any more aircraft.
Basically there is no practical choice.
Bathman sums up the position quite well, there are very few LAME ‘s and those that there are are not paid very much.
It is hardly surprising that companies can’t take on any more work simply because they can’t get the staff.
You can blame EASA for making the LAME exams far too academic and difficult to do and the customers for not wanting to reward those who pass the exams.
The young people of today see becoming an LAME as too hard to do for very little reward and too much personal risk if something goes wrong.
I spoke to one engineer recently and apparently you can get insurance.
If you work for a company then you are not liable personally provided you didn’t do something bordering on criminal. That is how most employee liability works. And the company will have insurance.
From what I see, the biggest problem with freelance EASA66 people is that due to the long term restrictions on freelance work (going back decades), they can earn a living only via a company employment. This ELA1 is a very recent thing and even for those who can take advantage will take many years to start working through the system. I meet a huge number of aircraft owners and basically those who don’t read EuroGA don’t know about this stuff 
And once you work mostly for a company, you cannot sh1t on your own doorstep by doing freelance work, especially at the same airfield
Whereas, an FAA A&P or A&P/IA is much better able to work freelance because that is the default tradition in that scene. In most cases the real limiting factor for these is the previously mentioned hangar availability. Accordingly, most of these freelancers are having to work under the umbrella of some maintenance company. Even if the IAs are there only for a couple of days, to inspect + sign an Annual.
Bathman, AFAIK, and IIRC previously posted, runs a flying school so AIUI is stuck with not only G-reg but also no freelance maintenance and no SDMP.
I do know freelance EASA66 people (but the bulk of their work is on LAA permit types) – so they do exist, and companies do work with them too. Probably not so common in the heady world of aircraft with the wheel on the front, though.
AJ wrote:
would hardly be delighted to let their engineers do cheap work in the field and forgo their main business.
Then the engineers will leave those companies for a self-employment business and will benefit a LOT financially when doing their own maint/ARC renewals.
Self employment is hard to make money in unless you can find enough owners with hangars where work is permitted. This is the chief limiting factor on freelance EASA66 activity.
FAA A&Ps have the same issue but they can “trade favours” with hangar owners because (especially if they have an IA) they get called upon to inspect and sign off N-reg work. EASA66 guys have no such bargaining power because most maintenane company owners are EASA66 themselves and can sign everything Euro-reg.
Peter wrote:
hangars where work is permitted
Strange country you live in
However, I think you will find it is similar in most places; the difference being that the others don’t want to post it on a forum because (a) this being a European forum, they don’t want to appear critical of their own country and (b) don’t want to get into trouble with their hangarage arrangements (a hangar you can’t work in is far better than no hangar at all).
I have never heard of a hangar in Sweden where you can’t do work. I understand that you have different rules but I am not sure if it is that strict in many European countries.
What about a scenario where there is a maintenance company on the airfield, and people are doing freelance maintenance in hangars?
Normally, the company would complain like hell to the airfield owner.
It gets better if the maintenance company owns the airfield
And it gets even better if their own employees are doing the freelance work
