Deliverance, thank you for the encouragement. You are right, there never was a Golden Age (certainly Haddon Cave's Golden Period of airworthiness is utter bunk!) and there never will be. All I can promise is an independent MAA that will be resented, just as its civilian sister is, and an MAAIB that will be the subject of moaning for the time it takes to publish Accident Reports. It was ever thus and shall be evermore. What I can say is that, were they to be independent of the MOD and of each other, then we can expect UK Military Aviation to reclaim the airworthiness that it once possessed, together with unbiased , objective, and comprehensive Air Accident Investigations that will not be afraid to point the finger at the Airworthiness Authority should it be called for.
I know that many BoI Presidents have not flinched from that in the past (and a word of apology here to the ASaCs President, who did indeed find the aircraft to be unairworthy, mea culpa!), but on the whole the investigation of the operator by the operator is prone to error to say the least (Mull as always being the prime example).
Airworthiness is not a preoccupation at squadron level, it certainly wasn't at mine. It is enough to fill your mind with SOPs, FOBs, ASIs, Pilots Notes, Tech Pubs, F700s etc etc. You assume that airworthiness is a given, summed up by Anthony Alowishus Hancock as he cheerily transmits, "Going well, tell the designer chappie!". It is a terrible indictment of those who set out to destroy it, that they also destroyed that trust and confidence in the back-room boys (and girls!). All that has to be repaired and trust regained. It is going to be a long hard road to regain all that has been lost. Time is of the essence because it has cost too many lives already. Time to put things right by admitting the past, prosecuting the transgressors, and freeing the MAA and MAAIB from the MOD and from each other.