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This new page on Tips & Techniques will not be a solid article, but rather one that I will occasionally add to as I think of them in hopes that if you admit to yourself that you are lacking in some area of flight, you can add some of this ammunition to your bag of tricks that you should have with you when you fly, so expect no order to my madness here, just some tips, tricks, and techniques that may be of aid to you, so check back often, and again we ask that if you feel that you have benefited from these articles, please donate to the cause to help offset the time, effort, energy, and cost involved in providing this information to you.

 Thank you.

CONTENTS on this page:

1. Tunnel Vision Flying

2. Slowing a Mooney Down

3. Fly your Patterns Wide

4. First Potential Emergency Procedure

5. Avoiding Midair Collisions

6. Piano Playing

7. Arm Yourself with Knowledge

8. Tips on Pumping Fuel

1. I will lead off this article with my latest blog post as of this writing, that being "TUNNEL VISION FLYING".

Yesterday, March 1, 2008 I was bothered by the news of the runway incursion and subsequent crash between two home built planes in Florida, thinking that those folks were out having a great time on a great day of flying locally there in the Florida sunshine. While many accident causes end up differently than they seem initially, this one was fairly obvious if it was reported correctly. One plane was landing while the other was taxiing down the runway heading toward the ramp. If the initial details of the accident change, it doesn't mean that this scenario doesn't happen, but why does it happen time and again? TUNNEL VISION! My son who is now 33 was taught to drive when he was 15. His problem then was that he would drive with tunnel vision as he zero'd in on the road ahead but with little to no regard for cars that would potentially come out of a driveway or street in front of him and he would just zoom on by paying them no mind. He has since then had 4 car accidents, some of which would not be considered his fault, but he had them nonetheless and his dad has never had one. I bring this up because I recently went to visit him in LA and he still uses that same tunnel vision when he drives to spite my attempts to change that in him. I fly with people from every walk of life and more often than not I can tell a pilot's attention on final is just to get the plane down on the runway via the large picture that soon shifts to the numbers on the runway. Is that how you fly, or do you do what I always do by checking the runway carefully for obstacles, deer, dogs, airplane parts and even grass mowers and the like. Sometimes we can look directly at something and not see it or have it register in our minds. If we as pilots cannot be trained to expect the unexpected and look for it in each flight regime each time we fly, then we should not be in control of a flying machine. I know that sounds harsh and to some even pessimistic, but the responsibility we as pilots have to ourselves, our families, and our passengers as well as those unsuspecting folks on the ground below, we owe it to all of us to be the best that we can be as pilots; taking nothing for granted nor leaving anything to chance. The accident this past weekend has left devastation to the families of those whom were lost in the accident, and to those laying in hospitals with severe burns. Can you......will you recognize some object on the runway when it exists? The answer is NO; that is unless you expect it to be there each time you land and then look for it rather than leaving it to chance that you will see it if and when it does exist. Always when you fly, expect the unexpected and chances are you're never be taken by surprise.

2. SLOWING A MOONEY DOWN.

Pre 201 Mooneys have a gear down speed of 120 mph. That was raised later in 1978 to 150 mph and unfortunately the later is not retrofitable to the earlier models other than the 1977 J model, so whether you are flying the older Mooney or the newer one, it takes some planning to get this slick bird slowed down in time for the traffic pattern. What I often see are pilots who simply keep pulling out the throttle when wanting to slow down coming downhill. Is that what you do? If so, you are wrong in that technique.

First off, if the air is reasonably smooth, heck I just point the nose down, throttle back a couple of inches and back off on RPM some and let her rip all the way up to redline on the airspeed indicator which helps make up for your climb time, but there are times when ATC wants you lower late in the approach or you just had your head in the clouds and began your descent too late. What then? Well if you're one of the few left flying the Porsche PFM Mooney you could simply reduce the engine to flight idle and come on down without worry of shock cooling your engine nor the worry of when you needed the power back on it wouldn't be there for you, but the rest of us have to consider the proper way of bringing your Mooney downhill without the chance of damaging your engine due to shock cooling it. Have you ever taken a glass dish out of the microwave or regular oven, emptied the dish on to a serving platter and then filled the glass dish with water to let it soak only to have it crack under the abrupt change of temperature? Well for sure steel is stronger than glass and can take more of a beating, but it is not impossible to crack something when you allow the temperature to change abruptly. Your engine runs its warmest on climb out because it has to work its hardest, but it also works pretty hard simply keeping your 3,000+ pounds of structure and contents in level flight, so to yank back on the throttle and point the nose in the downward direction natural laws want your airplane to go, naturally the engine does not have to work near as hard and therefore cools off at any power setting even if you keep cruise power in initially on the descent.  That reminds me of a flight I was on years back where a Cherokee pilot reported to ATC that his engine was over-heating and that he wanted to return to the airport, so he began his descent. Okay; smart move on his part, but a few minutes later he advised ATC that the problem had resolved itself so he would turn back on course and continue his climb...... I couldn't help myself so I spoke up without permission and I told the pilot that of course his engine would be cooler coming downhill and that it would soon re-heat itself as he climbed back up which it did, so he turned back once again. Duh right? Let's say for argument sake that pilot had his engine cease a few miles from the airport and had to attempt a landing off field where he might have made it back had he been a "thinking" pilot knowing that few things as serious as an over heating engine would somehow correct itself. Wammo! Another dumb statistic in the works.

Let's get back to the descent. When you need to come down at anything less than the speed of sound :o), the first thing to do is to back off a couple of inches manifold pressure, and then unwind the prop to a lower RPM. Most Lycoming powered Mooneys have a red or yellow zone not to cruise your prop in for long, and often that is only around 2-300 rpm lower than cruise so that doesn't do you much good, however that restricted range only exists for 3-400 rpm, so the best thing to do is reduce your manifold pressure from cruise to around 18" manifold pressure and then immediately begin unwinding your prop down to around 1900 rpm. As you do that, your manifold pressure will increase and settle to around 19-19.5". 19.5 squared is a good and acceptable setting for descent when in a hurry to get down and you will follow that through by adjusting the mixture followed by reducing manifold pressure as you descent because as you descend, the MP will increase due to the thicker air you encounter on the way down so monitor that. In the normally aspirated Lycomings, you can be assured that if you do not reduce your manifold pressure to below 18-19" even if you immediately dive down and even without reducing rpm, you will not shock cool your engine as that setting will not allow the engine to cool enough to be of concern. The turbo Mooneys are a bit more complicated than that as they run at warmer temperatures and your turbo is red hot in cruise so you don't want to cool either the engine nor the turbo off too quickly or you may (probably) face having to open your wallet very wide upon your arrival, so here is the technique I use that has not ever resulted in a problem created by shock cooling: Most power settings on a turbo at what is referred to as over-squared anyway. Over-squared is when the manifold pressure is at a higher value than the RPM; for instance in a 231 at 75% power, a normal power setting is around 32" MP and 2400 RPM or; 32/24...over-squared. So for the descent should you simply pull back on the throttle to say 20-24" manifold pressure which seems reasonable. No! You can damage your engine and/or turbo if you do that as a steady diet or even just once, however experience shows that engine and turbo damage is more cumulative than if violated just once, so here's what to do when you want to get down quicker than at other times. Pull your MP back about 4" initially and then follow that up immediately with an RPM reduction down to 1900-2000 or even less if needed and then check your MP to help insure that it rose back up to no less than a 2" reduction from where you had it in cruise, so while cruising at 32", you need a net value of no less than 30" initially for the descent, but "unscrewing" your prop gave you the power reduction needed in order to come on down at reasonable speeds and a good descent rate. Then for each 2-4 minutes of descent, you can reduce your MP an additional 2" MP, just be certain that you keep reducing as you descent to keep the initial setting or you may find you  have to start a vicious circle of reducing 2", and then picking up 2" as you descend and then having to reduce all over again to the initial MP value. On turbo engines you have to become more of a POWER MANAGER than in the normally aspirated engine if you want engine longevity, but it's not difficult if you apply these principles and understand why you have to do so. Remember that when you "unscrew" your prop, you are making an adjustment to a more coarse setting in effect taking a bigger bite out of the air and that creates drag, so with that drag the engine has to work harder in order to overcome that drag and to push those blades through the air which translates to more heat created within the engine to do so and the only time heat is your friend is on descent, so keep the above in mind. Now the rule of thumb 1" per minute or 2" per 2 minute MP reduction on turbo'd engines is if you don't touch the RPM, so by reducing the rpm to a much lower value in effect gives you a buffer on the rule of thumb MP reduction.

The most difficult Mooney to slow down to gear speed are the pre 201's. A good rule of thumb to apply is to arrive at pattern altitude at five miles out when terrain and permission exists to do so, and then you can somewhat leisurely slow down to your 120 gear down speed with no sweat, but what of those times when terrain or controllers will not allow that? This is one reason to slow your descent early so that when you arrive at your level off altitude you are not at after-burner speeds while closing in on your destination; however these Mooneys are slick and even when you reduce power as suggested above for the descent, you often arrive at your lower altitudes doing over 160-170 MPH or more with only a few miles of your destination at times, so next time try this technique: Let's say you begin your level off at your 19.5 squared power setting. You can immediately reduce your power to an even lower value because as you level off the engine will work harder and thus create more heat by needing to keep your plane at a now level attitudes as opposed to coming downhill. I always encourage a wider pattern than perhaps you were taught for safety sake, but especially so if you're having to go in to the pattern at high speeds not wanting to run over that freeway speed Cessna also in the pattern ahead, a wider patter will also give you more time to slow on down, so say you are entering the pattern at still a high speed of say 140 mph indicated and you need to immediately slow to the gear speed of 120 mph. Pull the power way down momentarily and carefully but quickly raise the nose of the airplane. As she begins slowing down just past 125 mph, begin dropping your landing gear while at the same time lowering the nose back to level flight. As the gear begins its transition, it will act to further slow the speed and be down at about 120 mph. This works well with both electric and manual landing gears, but those with the manual "johnson bar" gear, you can also deploy the gear about 1/3 the travel off the floor at up to 130 mph and hold it there until she slows to around 125 mph and then transition to gear down at which time you will have slowed to 120 mph. Holding the gear at around 1/3 downward travel does not extend the gear enough in to the wind to cause gear door damage which can happen if you drop the gear at too high a speed, so in effect, just like the Ram Air feature of the 200 HP models is a poor mans turbo charger, the manual gear 1/3 the way down is a poor mans speed brake! ;o)

Most turbo'd plane operators already know that their engines should not be shut down for at least 5 minutes after the wheels touch down, it is always a good idea for your normally aspirated engine operators to wait at least 3 minutes touch down to shut down as well and both cool down times include taxi time.

3. FLY YOUR PATTERNS WIDE.

As we can trace our ancestorhood back to Adam and Eve if we could dig deep enough, flight instructors can trace their lineage back to the original flight instructors; military flight instructors. The military has always and still does teach flying a tight pattern for reasons concerning being a target for enemy ground troops if too far away from base as well as the teaching of very precise and regimented pin-point accurate flight procedures. Well, last I checked we as private fliers are rarely fired upon and as for pinpoint accuracy, few of us ever get the precise flight training the military pilot types receive so let us proceed on the assumption that we're not quite as precise the pilots that the military are and not kid ourselves in to thinking that we are, so we should need a greater buffer that can and does lead to catastrophe otherwise. I can never emphasize this too greatly the need to fly a wider pattern than I observe people do on average and I have mentioned this in several of my articles on this website and apply the computer principle of "garbage in, garbage out" to flying and flight instructors. When we learn to fly or to achieve a higher rating such as CFI, we teach what we have been taught most often, and even if you ask many flight instructors why they teach flying a tight pattern; of course they need an answer so often times it is; "well, if your engine quits, you'll be closer to the runway in a glide". Give me a freakin' break! First off unless you are dangerously low on fuel, the engine is least likely to quit while under the lower power settings of the traffic pattern. Secondly, you are one heck of a less likely to experience an engine failure in the pattern as you are to experience the much higher pilot killer; the stall/spin base to final scenario which fills the NTSB fatal accident reports continually, and finally, you're at pattern altitude of usually 1000' AGL and even if you're 1/2 mile further out than the "runway huggers" in the pattern, you'll still make the runway. Oh please! Gimme a break flight instructors! You were taught wrong if you still teach tight pattern flying.

There are a few but important reasons that I recommend flying your aircraft at wider patterns. First off; if you fly a Mooney, you're flying the pattern at around 100 mph downwind, 90 mph on base, 80 mph on final and around 75 mph over the numbers. (Decrease those numbers by around 4-5 mph if using knots). I have blasted by unseen Cessna 150's and the like in the patter without even seeing them until I passed them by, and when directly behind such an airplane, all you see if at all is what looks like crosshairs in a gun sight making them near impossible to see in advance and if you're counting on them accurately announcing their position at all times, you live in a dream world because you will get bitten some day with that practice.

Another reason to fly wide are for those times when you need more time to get your airplane slowed to normal pattern speeds so that you don't fly through even the faster flown aircraft, and virtually all airplanes are difficult to spot from behind.

Further, when flying turns in the pattern, you need time to completely level your wings and afford yourself time to check for that bozo who thinks he doesn't need traffic patterns, he'll just fly straight in to save himself time, and to further save himself time, he may not even use his radio properly to announce what he plans on doing. It happens! Do you want to be his victim or do you want to listen to the "zef" and limit the odds against you in the defying of gravity? Plan on wings level for a few moments in any pattern turn for more precise flying capabilities and to look for opposing traffic. NEVER make it a habit to fly a constant circle in your transition from downwind to final. NEVER.

And last but not least, the BASE TO FINAL turn remains one of the biggest pilot killers. Why? Picture yourself in a tightly flown pattern. You're very busy checking for traffic and/or listening up for the tower controller or other traffic if on Unicom, watching the approach end of the runway for when to turn base, scanning your instrument panel, using checklists for landing, etc. so much so that you can easily miss the fact that the wind may be blowing toward the co-pilot side of your aircraft drifting you even closer to the runway. You turn base only to pick up a tail wind and before you know it you have to turn so sharply to the final approach leg forgetting that in an immediate transition from crosswind to tail wind your airspeed decreases momentarily due to the wind shift along with the fact that the greater the bank of the plane, the greater the stall speed. In other words, your stall speed can increase dramatically with heavy banking of the wings and just a bobble of turbulence is all you may need (if that) in order to abruptly stall the aircraft and no one survives a stall when it occurs at 500 feet or less AGL. You're simply dead and for why?! Because you chose the poor planning technique of flying too tight a pattern. File this under "always being prepared for anything"; at times we have no choice mainly due to our own doing, and if you happen to find yourself turning too sharply from base to final and are too proud to go around, adding power in a turn which under some circumstances lead to a stall/spin will raise the stall speed just enough at times to make the difference in making it in safely or not. I don't recommend that you use this in your everyday flying, just add this info to your "bag of tricks" and some day it may just make the difference.

4. First Potential Emergency Procedure.

Okay, you're flying along when all of a sudden you have some concern about something, or even if you just feel it in your gut that something is about to go wrong. (don't criticize that! A gut feeling saved the day for me at least once). So whether you feel something in the seat of your pants or you have some visual or hearing sensed reason to doubt about something important, the first thing I cannot impress more for you to do is change your course toward the nearest airport. Don't spend any time lollygagging trying to figure out what's going on, and whether it's real or imagined; don't take that chance. Once you're on an established heading to the nearest airport, then and only then take the time to troubleshoot the problem or potential problem. Assess what it was that garnered your attention. Narrow down the possibilities that may be causing the problem and then do what you can about it. If you can assess the problem and then completely address the problem to the point where all doubt is removed, only then turn back on course and what have you lost for this practice of caution that may some day save the souls on board? Just a few minutes is all. The important thing is to allow yourself all the time you possibly can to make it to that life saving strip of asphalt or concrete we call a runway. Scratch your head while keeping your current heading can at times make the difference of making it or not, so be prepared for anything, and if anything never happens, so be it, but at least you have turned the odds in your favor, and if you keep up with NTSB reports or the reports in my "Mooney Accident Stats" page: you will easily figure out that flying airplanes above the surface of the earth has its associated risks involved, and the active reducing of those risks are what many of my articles are about. Live long and prosper Grasshopper!

5. Avoiding Midair Collisions.

There is so much to consider and in no way can we cover every potential in-flight risk of a midair collision, but let us cover the main causes and see what we can and should do about limiting the risks of this rarely survivable condition of flight.

Following the advice in paragraph 3, flying a wide pattern is the first and arguably most important way to help prevent the coming together of flying machines in the sky as many if not most midair's do happen in the pattern or at least in the close proximity of an airport. Keep your eyes open when flying anywhere you would expect the converging of aircraft.

VOR's. Keep in mind that when flying along airways, the potential for midair's is greater than in open airspace because aircraft are converging from differing directions just at the VOR.

Head-on collisions. Also keep in mind that contrary to our worse case scenario, most midair's don't happen head on although some do, but the facts dictate that most midair's happen when one or both aircraft are changing from one altitude to another, and of those more often than not involve the low wing aircraft at the higher altitude than the high wing aircraft effectively making the see and avoid practice null and void, so what can you do in order to increase your odds of having a "pancake" type midair collision? Well, we're taught that S turn banking on the way up or way down is a good way to help and avoid that type of collision, but in practice, no one that I know practices that procedure, so what can we do in order to reduce that possibility? For one; always use Flight Following when available. Although not foolproof, that service can save your bacon one day. Secondly, add a mode S transponder to your GPS if at all possible, however the Mode S transponder such as the Garmin GTX-330 will set you back at least $3K less the value of your old unit which you can sell outright or trade in on the new one. If that's not monetarily practical for you, think about investing in one of those portable Collision Avoidance warning systems that are available for around $700.00 and up for new, and as low as $250.00 on ebay for a working used one. If you are the pilot/owner of a high wing aircraft, you must realize that you have a huge blind spot created by the wing and you must practice clearing your path of flight before your turn, and then I get the willies when I fly those Cessna's for that reason, and you high wingers especially need to do something about collision avoidance over and above see and avoid.

Strobes and beacons are a good thing, but are most useful for night flying. Glare, haze, and pure sunshine will at times prevent seeing those devices until it's maybe too late, so I recommend having your spinner chrome plated or at least highly polished and kept that way as you can see a chrome or shiny spinner reflect the sun from a much longer distance than you can see a strobe on a sunny day, but in all daylight situations, train yourself to watch out for reflections within your scope of view as those reflections usually turn out to be other aircraft, and for that reason, it is normally better to have your airplane painted a lighter colored base than a darker one. Avoiding blues and grays on your base colors will help your airplane stand out to others.

And finally; DO NOT RELY on having the other pilot see you first. It is YOUR JOB to spot him first.

6. Piano Playing.

I usually give the "Piano Player" talk to all of my customers that I fly with and I try not to forget that discussion to even those I don't get to fly with. Being a good pilot is like being a good piano player. By that I mean that for you to be a good all around airplane pilot, you need to train yourself to allow for "MULTI TASKING" like a piano player. On his left the piano player has to play the chords of the song while on the right he or she plays the melody; or in other words, the left hand is doing something completely different than the right hand. Can you do that or are you one of those many pilots who go to change the power setting while the left hand freezes at the yoke. Can you add or remove power while changing the attitude of the aircraft, or using your electric trim button in a knowing fashion while making power or mixture adjustments? If you have to think about that while you're doing it, then you need practice until you can do it as in any other natural ability that does not require other than subconscious thought. While inputting a control change one at a time can usually work in aviation operations, it is those rare times when you need to move faster than lightening that can and will make the difference at times; believe that as I have been there and done that and had it not been for my "piano playing" quickness of instant multi tasking, I probably would not be here now writing this for your benefit. I encourage you to on occasion sit behind the controls of your aircraft and practice over and over one scenario after another until you can do some operation or another with lightening speed and with little thinking about it as you go. You owe that to yourselves, your passengers, and to those on the ground below you to be the best airplane pilot you can be and leave as little to chance as possible and some day it just may make the difference of you being yet another "little plane" statistic, or an old retired pilot who finally lost his medical.

You know; this reminds me of the twin engine pilots of which I'm one of. When we first learn to fly a twin and get that rating, we're really good on engine out recognition and the quick acting procedures should one of the fans quit working, yet often many twin operators go years if not decades from practicing engine out procedures so that one day when it actually happens, they turn their airplane in to a Frisbee and become yet another out of practice statistic. Teach yourself how to be the best pilot you can be and never allow yourself to think that you now know it and then forget the need to practice the procedures you've wisely taught youself in the past. The cockpit is no place for complacency..........NEVER, not even on the most menial flight to the most demanding.

7. Arm Yourself with Knowledge.

I have always maintained that the best pilots are those whom are mechanically informed about their aircraft. If you were to compare the Mooney owner who never has the time to be involved with the mechanical aspects of his aircraft and simply leaves all that to his mechanic to deal with as opposed to the Mooney owner who becomes intimately involved in the maintaining and understanding of his bird, which one would you think would be the safest and most efficient pilot? To me it's a no brainer that the more informed pilot can and will understand a problem developing before it becomes a problem. To illustrate my point, I think back to a local Mooney owner who's first Mooney was an F model. Due to a success in business a few years after purchasing his F model, he charged me with locating a Mooney Rocket or at least a good candidate for the Rocket conversion. I found one in California and the two of us flew out there to check it out and subsequently flew her back here to her new home in San Antonio. Of course the F model had to come out of his hanger at New Braunfels Airport to make room for the new Rocket Mooney so he asked me to taxi his F over to the tie down while he put his new Rocket to bed. I fired the F model up for the taxi and immediately shut the engine down as it was making a metal to metal racket such as I had never experienced before. This Mooney owner was in the habit of flying most of his flights at night due to all the hours his thriving business would cause him to work. It was most obvious that this engine noise was an on-going problem and not just appearing this one time she was started and I asked him why he had not noticed that engine metallic noise before. His remark was that his engine starting procedure was to first put on his ANR headset and turn it on before engine start and he never noticed that noise before due to that noise attenuating headset! ECI took that engine apart for us and reported and showed us the result of the on-going problem. The innards of that engine were shot all around. The crankshaft was reduced to cheese as was all the other internal parts and for why? Because this owner not only chose to take the hear-no-evil syndrome, but is also the type of operator that he relies on his mechanic for everything including not the least of which is his life!

That being said, I have always maintained that I give credit for being what I consider a conscientious and safe pilot of over 5,000 hours in singles alone having to have proved that in flight time and again, the credit goes to my having read everything I could ever get my hands on regarding flying an airplane including accident reports all the way through aircraft manuals and questioning every mechanic that I have ever been associated with by picking his brain as well as those who manufacture the engines we fly and put so much trust in on a daily basis. Basically I became and remain an aviation sponge by soaking in any and all information I could and most of that was well before the internet.

If you are a Mooney aficionado, whether you own or will some day own a Mooney, how can you even justify flying your bird without being armed with that which we have provided for your furtherance of education  such as provided by our Maintenance/Service/Parts CD manuals as well as our Mooney Inspections PDF that is emailed directly to you? While these manuals are fine sellers, the many dozens of units sold in the short time they've been available does not even hold a candle to the tens of thousands of hits this website gets on a weekly basis, so wise up ya'll! Learn, learn, learn about the aircraft of choice you fly or are about to fly and make this relatively low investment of intense and complete information that we have made available to you. Show your sincerity of becoming the finest, most informed pilot in the sky, and should you find an area that you feel is not covered in this informatory info, you can simply email me to give you a detailed response to what you may find is not covered in this informative bit of Mooney information. If you're going to fly these high performing airplanes born in Kerrville Texas, you had better be informed as to what makes them click. Otherwise you will be as an Ostrich that hides his head in the sand allowing his butt full exposure. Still in question? All I can add is a big DUH!

8. Tips on Pumping Fuel (written for cars but this principal works for aviation fueling as well)

TIPS ON PUMPING GAS   (Good information)

I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon..

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.  A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL.  The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!

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You need THIS and THIS (Package price available) and THIS  

FLY AS SAFE AS YOU ARE ABLE, and MAKE YOURSELF ABLE TO FLY SAFE!

zef

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