There is nothing wrong with practicing engine failures after take-off in a Conquest providing everyone on board knows what they are doing.
I question the competence of all 3 pilots on board the aircraft that day to do what they were doing, and I question their judgement and professionalism in planning and conducting the flight as it occurred.
Biggest issue is a lack of shared resources and mentoring in the GA industry. Once upon a time CASA would have provided some of that expertise and wisdom but the Department is denuded of experience with very few truly experienced pilots left. The operators are all living on the edge and very few are willing to share techniques and methods with competitors.
I have it on good authority that a recognised industry expert on type was going to do some training with Martin Scott to develop his C&T skills and knowledge on the type, but that training was cancelled to save money and the CASA inspector may have been motivated to save Rossair some coin.
I have been training pilots on the C441 for 3-4 years and I still ring a couple of very experienced mentors to discuss what I am doing and how I am doing it.
If the Regulator was not so tied up with the self-imposed administrative fallout and workload created by Part 61/141/142 they could invest their resources and (remaining) expertise into GA Check & Training Masterclasses to actually, you know, IMPROVE safety in General Aviation.
To say "no lessons have been learnt" from Martin's death is not true - it just means that as usual the industry is far more mature and advanced than our second-rate regulator.
More importantly, we are finding ways to still achieve the training outcomes without killing people.
Choppa I am very very sorry for your loss.