Q400
Having flown Q400, E-Jet and now Airbus I have to say the Q400 was the most demanding to fly - which is precisely why the jet prejudice is a nonsense. I'm not sure that I'd class a Q400 as slippery though (except in comparison to an airborne wheelbarrow! ;-)
My advice to those still at Flybe or even thinking of joining is to think hard about what you want from the job of being a pilot. There's upsides and downsides to all flying jobs. I once chatted to a 777 Captain who had flown everything from instructing in Cessna's through turboprops at Eastern and then small jets before finally flying the heavies. He said to me that his job satisfaction had proved to be inversely proportional to his paycheck and he bloody hated sitting there for 11 hours at a time staring at a 4000 mile ocean in the middle of the night but was trapped by the salary.
If Flybe offered a 5/3 fixed roster pattern that would in my view make a big difference because it would dramatically improve lifestyle and people would be more inclined to tolerate the downsides like low pay and roster disruption. Ironically as they are so short of crew they're probably less likely to do this now than ever and yet it's precisely the kind of measure that could solve their staff attrition issues in the longer term.
I also think it will be interesting to see if Saad stays. Many suspect he's only in it for the money and his 3 year contract involved a huge bonus if he managed to significantly improve the share price 3 years after taking over. In fact the share price is (I think) lower than when he joined so he may decide to leave anyway which may leave the way open for a more charismatic leader with more flair, better people skills and the ability to re-energise the workforce. What Flybe needs is someone like Branson or Colin Marshall with a genuine passion for aviation and customer service, the intellect to innovate and the ability to create passion in his staff and a bit of theatre around the brand.
Sadly I suspect Saad is a bean counter who lacks flair. He intimidates his staff and I'm not sure if he really cares about his passengers. If you read the financial sites he doesn't seem to have impressed the city analysts or investors. He went around sacking and demoting (often capable and experienced) managers left right and center while spouting meaningless phrases he picked up on an MBA course. He sacked stacks of pilots only to find himself recruiting to replace them almost immediately, he grounded a fleet of jets for months and then realised (as an 'O' level economics student could have told him) that by doing that he was still paying all the leases but not earning any revenue from them to offset that so he put them back in the air again. He has opened and closed bases all over the place which led people to wonder if there was cohesion to the strategy. He shed and lost excellent staff who had a strong sense of loyalty and customer service ethic. Fundamentally his biggest failing is that he hasn't managed to take his staff, the city or perhaps even his customers with him quite the way one might have hoped.
Thankfully Flybe weathered the storm but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he decides to seek his fortune elsewhere.