I posted the following on a thread in 'Private Flying' entitled: Warbird Flying - What Does it Take. It's still valid:
How do you get to fly warbirds - be at the right place at the right time, with the right qualifications, recognise what it is and grab it as it goes past.
Here's some routes that have worked in the past for colleagues:
RAF FJ, Conningsby F3's, BBMF. They don't require any tailwheel experience, they'll teach you what you need to know. However, most of the pilots are station execs, which means you'll have to work hard, be sucessful in your RAF career, and wait some time before you are eligible...
RAF FJ, TP, get some tailwheel experience, possibly Harvard at Boscombe Down, leave RAF and join Rolls-Royce, fly Rolls-Royce Spitfire, or should I say Spitfires as they are rebuilding MN-E, the Mk XIV that crashed about ten years ago.
RAF pilot (not necessarily FJ), TP, volunteer for Shuttleworth Collection, wait a long time, but they'll teach you what you need to know and eventually you'll fly the Shuttleworth Spitfire, Lysander, Gladiator, Hind and Hurricane and a lot of other interesting types as well.
RAF FJ, volunteer for a civilian flying unit, such as North Weald, that uses service pilots to teach civilians, teach warbird owners formation etc, eventually persuade an owner to let you fly their warbird.
Spend a lot of money on taildragger experience - Tiger Moth, Harvard, Yak, etc, have a great time, maybe at airshows, and wait for the opertunity to arrive and hope you spot it as it goes past.....
Become a Pop Star and buy your own - Dave Gilmour and Gary Newman did it, so why can't you....
Does that help? Maybe the last two don't, but the rest could work.
A
PS: Can anyone help by creating a link, I'm afraid I don't know how?
PPS: You don't need to be lucky, all you have to do is create your own luck. I know it's easy to say, but it can be done. It was 22 years to the day from my first solo (in a C150) to my first flight in a Spitfire (MkXIV). It all came together in the last 6 months and it arrived through being at the right place at the right time with the right experience..........'nuf said..............
PPPS above thread in Private Flying was around 16th May this year.