RE: fuel pickup nightmare - clunk or solid pipe?
well you probably can't do any better with an air bleed carb. But consider this, while you can dive or descend at low throttle and a steady speed, maintaining a nose down attitude for a period of time, the plane can never hang on an idling engine in the air. This means in a nose high attitude the fuel is either weightless since the plane is deccelerating or unless otherwise you're at high or full throttle. Think of a stall turn.
Clement