TM, I suggest that you scour second hand bookshops or online services such as
www.alibris.com for a book called "The Tiger Moth story" by Alan Bramson & Neville Birch. This will tell you many things about Moths which you might find useful if you do learn to fly them.
To answer your questions:
The strake is not "the thing where the tailwheel should be". That's the tailskid, which provides friction on a grass surface to help steer the aircraft (which has no brakes, which are what you use to help steer, but not usually to stop, some other taildraggers). The Tiger was never intended to have a tailwheel although I've heard of at least one that's had a wheel and brakes fitted.
The strakes can be seen looking a little like fairings attached to the fuselage just by the tailpane. The RAF fitted them after a spate of spin recovery problems and some accidents with its Tigers, which stemmed from increases in weight and changes in balance caused by modifications such as bomb racks, aileron mass balance weights, reinforced spars and layers of paint. One Boscombe Down test pilot took 13 turns of a high rotational spin before recovering. What a guy!
As an aside, the bomb racks were not just there for training: in the desperate weeks after Dunkirk it was seriously planned to use Tiger Moths to defend against a German invasion: they were supposed to bomb the invasion beaches and try to snag paratroopers with scythes hanging from the undercart: seriously! Luckily the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots were so well trained (in Tigers of course) and brilliantly led that these plans were never put to the test.
Moving on: Not all Moths were military: many formed the staple of the pre-war private flying clubs. Ironically, the mostly unmodified civvie aircraft usually behaved benignly in spin recovery, but nowadays, as far as I am aware, aren't cleared for intentional spinning or aeros (the reason for the latter being that any aerobatic manoeuvre involves the potential for departure from controlled flight).
As far as I know the Cambridge Tigers are ex RAF and spinnable. I imagine that the instructors there are keen on full spinning as a part of the basic course (it's now optional and rarely done at most flying schools).
Aeros in a short sortie may be possible if the local controlled airspace and terrain permits you to get high enough without going far from the airfield. As for climb rates, each Tiger Moth, and each Gipsy Major engine, is subtly different. I have experience of three, each with different characteristics. You can't always expect book figures from 60 year old aircraft, even if lovingly maintained. The book recommends climbing at 2050 rpm and 58 knots, but I must confess that when I've been at the controls of a Tiger on climbout I've been far too busy trying to keep the thing straight to notice the climb rate (come to think of it, I'm not even sure the ones I flew had VSIs). Suffice it to say that the rate of upward progress is not dramatic.
Having your own SE5a is of course a very good idea, although frankly reloading the over-wing Lewis gun in flight is said to be a bit of a chore, but you shouldn't set out to learn flying thinking that ATC is nonsense. It's lovely to fly (legally) low and slow without talking to anyone, but ATC are there to help and are very useful. The guys in Wycombe Tower are a very good example of this.
Anyway, why not pop along to the Moth club event and see if you can get upside down. Even if you can't, you can ask the owners/pilots to tell you about the aircraft and show you features such as strakes, skids etc. which you may not have had time to examine when you did your trial flight at Booker.
[This message has been edited by FNG (edited 07 June 2001).]