"However if the maintenance folks mess up and/or lose and/or fail to update the paperwork they would still be in the same mess."
I've been the Tug Master at two gliding clubs, and the manager of one. I've never experienced anything near as utterly pathetic as this debacle, and would suggest that you need highly trained, very well paid senior officers to mis-manage at this level of incompetence. Or am I missing something?