Beaver Eager. Good luck. It is not just the tail dragging thing, though.
When you are sitting behind a Merlin or Griffon, you are sitting behind a nose that stretches up into eternity and occupies a large part of your horizon; and you are not sitting behind Gypsy Major at 143 H.P.
A Merlin or Griffon delivers +/- 2,000 H.P. coupled to a three-bladed or more propeller. Those engines give instant response and those blades can hit the air like a brick wall. I believe jets spool up faster today than they used to, but even so, I suspect nothing like as fast as a big piston. Deliver that power in fine pitch at low speed, as has been done (though rarely twice at low altitude on approach by the same pilot)and you may find yourself in an airframe that is rotating round the propeller. This probably is not what you had in mind.
The torque is fierce. The first time I flew a Firefly T.2 the instructor (Knocker White, are you out there?)took it to the extreme right hand edge of the runway, nose pointing down the line, stopped, and said: "Watch this!".
He rammed the throttle open in fine pitch and then as rapidly closed it. In that split second we surged 90 degrees left and were at the grass at the left hand side, facing off the runway.
I think you will not do a torque stall in a Chipmunk or a Tiger Moth, but a big piston is something else again. If I had a Spitfire, I would not lend it out much. Nothing personal, you understand. I just would not want to risk my toy and someone else's broken neck. Especially my toy.
I have to tell you though, Beaver, if you have the money to do it, you are on the right track. There is nothing -- short of the other, of course -- like a curved approach (to see round the nose)in a heavy in-line single, in rain, straighten out at the last second, chop the throttle, Ah! the crackle from the stub exhausts, stick back, and touch down on three points. Outasight! Mind you, some do wheelers, but those are not for you nor me.
If you do get the money together and want someone to show you how, give me a call. It is only 43 years since I flew one, and I remember very well. Same thing with a bicycle.
[This message has been edited by Davaar (edited 13 September 2000).]