The cold air feed pipe can be as long as you want it to be.

If you're going for a straight through Piper with the CAI pipe attached to the filter housing, don't put the intake too low in case of water suction leading to engine damage.

The air is ideally cold and fast, so whacking it as close to the ground with fast moving air is the best plan technically. This is OK with cone filters where the CAI pipe sits near the cone but there's no bolt on.