quick drains on wing tanks

[phintz]

Hello everyone!, I am almost finished with my final assembly and I'm wondering what everyone is doing with the drain holes on the wingtanks!

Are you putting in the quick drains( a fellow KF owner advised me not to, he had his leak and gas ran down the bottom of wing and ruined the paint job)


or

are you just plugging the holes with a threaded plug?

Thanks again
Patrick
series 6 builder

[Dorsal]

Flush mount quick drains, no leaks yet.

[WISDAN]

Flush mount drains also. Right drain leaked at the first 5 hours, replaced it and has not leaked since....... at 100 hours now.

[jiott]

Flush mount quick drains. No leaks after 30 hours.

[Jfquebec]

Flush quick drain...no leak...0 hrs...

[PapuaPilot]

The reason we have drains on our wings is to drain water or small debris in the fuel. Don't ever consider plugging them up. I would rather have stains on a paint job then an engine failure!

Often the QDs leak because of some type of debris got stuck in the seat of the valve. The debris can be usually flushed or pulled out and the valve will stop leaking. It seems that you will want to be very careful during the first hours of operation because there might be some debris that is in your tanks.

Aged o'rings will crack or chip and leak. They can be replaced on some drain valves. You might even consider changing the o'rings if your project is more than 10 years since purchase. Many o'rings have a shelf life of 10-15 years.

[Dave S]

Patrick,

Had the flush mounted quick drains in the wing tanks for 5 years....never a leak....also have a spare in the plane - JIC

Now...for the non-flush mount quick drains.....had one of them leak after 3 years...the O ring was the problem - built a little different than the flush mount Quick Drains.

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF 7 Trigear
912ULS Warp Drive

[N981MS]

About 750 hours on our flush mounts and I don't think they have ever been taken out of the tank. Hardly ever found any trash or water. Got to have quick drains though. Found small amount of water once on preflight after outside in rain. Been outside in rain other times but no water. Very rarely very small amount of trash. But, you never know when you will get some bad fuel somewhere,

Please suggest to your friend that he put his quick drains back in.

[n85ae]

The drains in the tanks don't really make sense if you ask me, since the fuel
system low point is the header tank anyway, seems to me that checking that
makes the most sense. I really don't see those wing drains as being useful.

That said mine has them, and I do check them, but every time I check I feel
like they don't serve any real purpose. Plus they occasionally weep fuel.

Regards,
Jeff

[Paul Z]

Flush mount drains on the SLSA’s