Can't say much about the Q300, but the Q400 is a beast of a machine. Speed is the main point. Makes those longer regional sectors just that wee bit shorter. Consistently over take those pesky ATRs in the CLIMB, let alone in the cruise (and being told to slow down on descent because you're catching up to the 737 ahead)
Can get to max ceiling at MTOW (although getting there in ISA+30 in the humid tropics is a bit enduring).
Effectively 5 hours fuel endurance so tankering really isn't an issue. You can always squeeze a bit more on for mum and the kids when it's full of pax and cargo. Short field performance is pretty good, given the size of the aeroplane (a small, big aeroplane - or a big, small aeroplane. Whichever way you want to look at it). Most importantly, the Q400 has an APU! Which makes life much more civilised when you're out west on a 40+ day. Whenever we saw an ATR parked next to us, we used to start the APU just to remind them that we had one!
Main vice, it's very unforgiving on the landings (especially lightweight). The gear struts go straight to the wing spar so any solid landings are amplified considerably because of that setup. The other was no autopilot available after a V1 cut (because of certification requirements) until aircraft is cleaned up and max continuous set. Landing single engine must be hand flown below 1000' (unless that has been changed
again). Other vices (which were company induced) were dual FMS setup that weren't synchronised until just a few years ago. A few little rules that the company thought was better than what Bombardier had designed the thing to do (some procedures actually went against what the AFM stated).
Most common problem was those bloody ATRs just kept getting in our way!
Certainly miss flying it, that's for sure!
Fuel-Off
