I purchased a 109B in the late 80's and formed a consortium of eight pilots to own and operate it. I was the check pilot and instructor for the group and I developed a low opinion of the design for many pilots. It is a complex little airplane. It is a true taildragger and has a Mickey mouse shifting mechanism to transition from cruise to climb and visa versa. It will not climb in the cruise setting and if you inadvertently miss the shift on downwind you will not be able to go around. I had students do this a few times fortunately with enough runway to roll out and taxi back. The single ignition version is prone to plug fowling, which happened to me twice on cross country flights necessitating finding an airport quickly. It took me 30 hours of instruction to ready one of the members to safely operate the aircraft, and he was both a licensed power and glider pilot.

I sold my share in about 1993 and the new member ( I did not check out) was overflying his vacation home in central Oregon and was unable to climb away and crashed with the engine at full power. I think they concluded it spun in. He probably missed the shift into climb mode. Neither the 109 or the pilot survived.
The 109B is a busy, underpowered aircraft. (neither beast nor fowl) and if the A is even worse It would probably be a poor option.

Having said that, I had a lot of fun in the airplane. I flew it from Tennessee to Oregon and up and down the west coast a few times, I just don't think it is for everyone. .
Dale Bush