Whats the trick to removing e-clips?

Finding the little sods after they fly off the pin at the speed of light to the far side of the room and lodge in the shag pile carpet under the 3 ton book case!

Best way to prevent loss by flight is remove them while in a large plastic bag. That way it 'usually' stays in the bag.

Here is how I do it...put a thin 'blade' screw driver in the slots at the back of the open part of the E clip, and slowly twist, while using the finger you are going to stab with small blade screwdriver to apply pressure on the clip thus preventing the "ping, whizzzzz, whack, plop, silence" of the usual method. Its amazing how a little blood can assist in RC engineering. In fact I use more blood than WD40 nowadays!