ORIGINAL: Jezmo
but they run fine in any position. Think about flying inverted, it wouldn't be so good if they quit running upside down. Just my two
Exactly...
Tank height, engine orientation, etc... have nothing to do with it once the engine is tuned and running.
Height only affects siphoning when the engine is sitting on the ground before flight, and once tuned with the engine at idle this is reduced to a very low amount... so a bit of pre-flight care fixes that... e.g. you often do not need to prime inverted engines.
Novices may have slightly more problems dealing with all of this, but an experienced hand can quickly acclimate them to the slight change.