My Europa's POH consists of about 2-dozen photocopied sheets of paper. Some are from Europa manuals and documents. Some are from Rotax, then engine manufacturer. Some were written by the aircraft builders and describe the peculiarities of the particular aircraft's fuel system, electrical system, etc. Lots of the pages are printed pages with hand-written notes scribbled onto them. There's also a weight+balance sheet.
Ok, so it's not as pretty as the manual which comes with a Public C of A aircraft. But I certainly wouldn't want to fly the aircraft without reading it. Knowing how the fuel system works enables me to bypass the main fuel filter if it becomes blocked in flight. If the alternator fails in flight, I'd like to know what the possible consequences are. These are all things which the aircraft builders are familiar with, but which the instructor who checked me out couldn't tell me because he didn't know that specific aircraft.
There doesn't need to be formal document. But there should certainly be some helpful notes somewhere, they should be made available to pilots, and pilots should be made to read them before flying the aircraft, IMHO.
FFF
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