I think that you have rather missed the core point here EnigmA, with respect. I quite agree with you that the VGS's were second to none in introducing young people to the military ethos as well as the challenges of aviation. The problem is that what was a given, that the UK Military Airfleet was in the main airworthy, is no longer so. As engines says, this has not happened overnight but is the result of decades of neglect and cover up. That it has hit the ACO fleet so hard is a matter of great regret, that it has hit the operational fleets badly is a national tragedy that compromises our security.
As I have already proposed, the solution requires the RAF acknowledging the cover up, reappraising Haddon Cave therefore, and starting the reform of UK Military Air Safety by backing an MAA and a MilAAIB that are independent of the MOD and of each other. Only then can the rebuilding of UK Military Airworthiness start in earnest. It will be then further decades before the UK Military Airfleet can once again said to be, in the main, airworthy again.
What happens in the meantime to the ACO fleet is a quandary. Whereas the operational fleets must carry on as best they can, the same cannot be said for the gliders. Even if some are declared airworthy, and they may well be, who is to ensure that they will still be in the future? The MAA clearly cannot ensure it, as tuc and others have declared. The don't know how to, and are compromised by the cover up in taking the necessary steps to do so.
It seems to me that engines has it about right. If you want to get ATC and CCF cadets back into gliders ASAP, then the civilian register is the way to go. It has no doubt feet of clay, but it does have one great advantage; that Regulator and Investigator are independent of the Operator and of each other. That is the model for UK Military Aviation to emulate in my view.