RE: Running out of fuel on down lines.
If you take a bucket of water and swing it the water will stay in the bottom of the bucket, more or less. As long as the plane is moving as fast as you are swinging the bucket the fuel will stay at the back of the tank. You don't need to accellerate just moving forward at one G.
Ten seconds on a vertical down line would put all my planes well below terra firma. Five would be about max.