I generally agree Jim, but a question - do you think its possible with a taildragger sitting, that water could collect in the aft portion of a wing tank (behind the drain) and then in a level flight attitude, make its way through the fuel system?

A few other points to ponder:

In the old days - don't know if still true as I can't find recent stats - somewhere between 5 and 7 aircraft accidents/incidents a MONTH in the USA were caused by fuel contaminated by water. Of those, about 75% were attributed to pilot error. IE: inadequate pre-flight.

So, I guess the point is - it really doesn't matter want gear you have in your craft, if you don't have a thorough pre-flight routine and stick to it.

As an aside, some may wonder why aircraft with electric fuel pumps AND a return line don't generally use gascolators. The fuel is flowing too fast for a separator to function and as such the water generally stays in suspension and diluted enough so as to still be a combustible solution. This however, does not negate the need to do proper a pre-flight of checking for water in each fuel reservoir.

Again IMHO,
Greg

Greg