Saw a guy reuse a crush washer on a fuel drain at Oshkosh and it still bugs me
Two summers back at Oshkosh I watched a guy button up a fuel drain with the same crushed washer he just pulled off, said it was fine for the trip home. Two days later that same plane was back on the field with a slow drip staining the pavement and he was pulling the panel again in the sun. I started carrying a bag of new washers in my box after that and I swap them every single time, no exceptions. It costs pennies and saves a whole afternoon of rework. Anyone else see something dumb at a fly-in that ended up changing how they work?
Man, I gotta say I don't buy the "every single time no exceptions" thing. Those copper crush washers are made to crush once, sure, but I've pulled drains where a guy annealed the washer with a torch and it sealed fine for years, and I've also seen brand new ones leak because the mating surface was dinged up. The washer isn't always the problem, the seat is. What actually changed my routine was watching a guy at Sun n Fun torque a drain into a chewed up boss and split it, washer was brand new and it still dumped fuel. Swapping parts is easy, but it can cover up the real issue if you're not looking at the surface too.