The paperwork is necessary, and always has been necessary.
Like I said Cessna were doing ti back in the 50's. Don't know of your experience reaches back that far but you can still find the manuals.
It is more than simply the box maintenance. It is also about the instalation maintenance/ rectification............and as you know it can be different on every aircraft.
I would not touch an aircraft with a box of tricks fitted without all the required paperwork.
Now I can see why you say that many UK aircraft have lots of missing paperwork and why aircraft elsewhere do not have the same problem.
Again I say...........nothing new for me in all this. If engineering organisations are going to charge more for doing what they were doing (or should have been doing) all along then I can rightly claim that they are profiteering from the confusion surrounding the issue and in many cases, addid to that confusion probably for their own benifit.
The thred should be entitled CAA Money Pit.
Then you could indeed have a debate.
Regards,
DFC