I went through this bung tightening issue a while back. What I finally found out is that when putting these things together, a big thing is that many people (including me at that time) thought that it should be tight enough so that the tubes don't move. If you do this, it will actually be over tightened and may cause the splitting mentioned above.

The right way to do it, from what I was told, and I believe read here on RCU is to tighten it so that the tubes are snug, but still rotate, but with some effort. This is sufficient to both seal the bung in the tank inlet and to seal the tubes inside the bung. It will not leak if done right and won't split because it isn't tightened to the point where it stresses the neck of the tank.

I read your post about the Pattern meet. Great job!! Now, the key to this is to practice, practice, practice. Have someone stand behind you with the Sportsman sequences and do them over and over again, start to finish. If you run into a stumbling point, like perhaps you are not happy with your Split S or 1/2 Reverse Cuban 8, or whatever, do the entire sequence (get that down so that it's totally automatic as to "what comes next".. you don't want to be thinking about what you are going to do just prior to doing it, you should be a maneuver or two ahead of that and planning on your exit from your maneuver so set up the next.

Anyway, after you complete your maneuver sequences, and get ready to land, you can do a touch and go, then go back up and do, oh, 5 to 10 of the maneuvers that are giving you problems, or that you are not happy with.

Eventually, you will be doing each and every maneuver as though they were animated and all you are doing is watching. Well, perhaps not that easy, but you get the idea.

Best of luck at your NEXT outting!!! Hey.. now you have experience so you're ready for the NATS!!

CGr.