Skyco and Willl, that is exactly how my well works. That column of air supplied by the snifter inside the well pipe gets pushed into the tank at each pump cycle. When the air at the top of the tank exceeds the set level, the float valve drains it off so that water always fills to the same level. If I'm watering the yard and using a lot of water, but not enough to keep the pump from cycling, that snifter and the bleed valve get a workout. I try to run four sprinklers at once so the pressure never goes above 45 psi and the pump never shuts off.
Turnkey4099, my snifter and bleed valve have never failed in the 11 years my well has been in use. I would say this is a very reliable setup. What I did have fail was the pressure gage that sits on top of the air bleed valve. it's inlet tube filled up with crud. I recently had to take the float fitting out and clean the pinhole plus replace the pressure gage. That's the only failure I've ever had with this system.