An A&P friend of mine who was involved in the restoration of a P51D related a story that kind of confirms Brent's suspicion about the available torque being capable of overpowering the flight controls....

After the P51 restoration was complete a competent and qualified test pilot was hired to do the flight testing to verify that everything was as it should be.  At altitude the pilot setup in the landing configuration and rapidly applied normal takeoff power.  The story goes that the airplane rolled several times on the prop against full opposite aileron and rudder inputs.  Reduction in power stopped the roll.  Old wive's tale??  Could be.  However, if it's not, that says that an 8000-8500# airplane can be torque rolled with around 1500hp (about 5.5#/hp).  Ergo, is it possible that a 3000# airplane can experience the same thing when 750shp (4#/hp) is applied too abruptly?  Sounds like a good bet to me.

Just food for thought.

   <marv>