@african eagle
I realize it can happen, but the point of this topic, or my intent of it, was to hear about engine failure's that where not pilot errors.
"Aircraft was a VLA with rotax engine, I was using unlead petrol: investigation revealed 11 litres of water in 40 litres of fuel."
I dont know who the investigation in your accident blamed, but here's my take on it. I believe it was Pilot error. Why? Well if you have 1/4 water in your tank and you miss it, then someone didn't do the preflight. I DO REALIZE, that you have to wait roughly 30 minutes for all the water to settle and be drainable after refueling, but lets see what the POH says. POH's say that after every fueling, a fuel sample must be drained. I guess that means to wait 30 min on the ground in oder to stay 100% legal. So if you dont follow POH procedures, the pilot committed an error.
Btw, if you have 1/4 water mixed into the fuel, then usually you can already see water deposits after a few minutes. And if all the water was already settled at the bottom, and you drained it and nothing but water came out, then a color/smell check should of been done.