M2N:_
Hope things are more enlightened now.
Welcome to this wild and lonely thread yea ken, Sir.
My reply to your wistful thought above must be, "would that they were". You may have blotted your copy book with Bermuda Shorts (I mean, really!) but you bestrode your command in a time of plenty compared to nowadays.
The aircraft then in service were the subject of proper enforcement of the Airworthiness Regulations by fully qualified and experienced engineers who knew what they were doing, and were doing what they knew. All that was to be swept away by VSOs later, following catastrophic financial bungling in 1987 that had to be bailed out by a quick injection from some Piggy Bank or other. The one chosen was the one that had thus far been ring-fenced as sacrosanct, ie Flight Safety. The engineers were ordered to suborn the Regs but sign them off as complied with. The ones who didn't were sacked and replaced with non-engineers who knew no better than to do what they were ordered.
Subsequent Airworthiness Related Fatal Air Accidents featured on this Forum alone accounted for 62 deaths. Only recently has the finding of Gross Negligence by the pilots of the worst of those accidents been set aside. No other action has been taken following evidence of the Gross Unairworthiness of that aircraft and of the Illegal RTS that put it into RAF service, despite (or because of?) the loss of 29 lives.
The airworthiness of the RAF's aircraft is still a matter of great concern, the lack of Independence of its Regulator and of its Air Accident Investigator is still a matter of concern, the cover up of the above scandal is still a matter of concern. So, no, I'm afraid that things are far from enlightened now, as this link will testify....
https://sites.google.com/site/militaryairworthiness/