There is no doubt that when the Dash was first introduced, there were two complete clowns in the training department, whose adversarial approach to training was well known. It was no surprise when they were both removed from those training positions (by promotion to the 146 in one case, not sure about the other). At the time, it was the most unprofessional training environment I have ever seen. maybe it is better now, it couldn't have been much worse. A few of us were offered Q400 positions, I for one turned it down as I refused to fly with those turkeys.
I well remember the discussions in the crew room about the Alps drift-down problem. To me, the real issue was that nobody had even considered it until a few of the crews started to wonder out loud "what would happen if..." Why the Fleet Management and Performance department never thought about it is beyond me.
And BTW, doing drift-downs in the sim has to be the biggest waste of time there is. At least flying under Tower Bridge would have some training value, practising a driftdown has none.
Mind you, the jet fleet wasn't much better. After our first season into Innsbruck, it became obvious that we needed a re-write of the brief as it didn't contain nearly enough information, and had some serious errors. Sure enough, next season rolls around and where is the brief? Not ready, of course. Just as well the weather was nice for the first few weeks. That one was down to the FM... thank god he's gone now.
As far as training is concerned, it was always pretty good on the jet fleet. Most of the trainers are top-notch people, there is no artificial stress, and the job gets done with the minimum of fuss. The Chief trainer on the jet is superb.
On the turboprop it has always been different. With JT in charge, and the midget from Leeds later, chopping was the order of the day. All trainees were subject to completely unnecessary stress. We used to get them for line training, so wound up they could barely fly. It took the first two or three line flights to calm them down enough to teach them anything.
And line training... when I became a line trainer on the F27, my "training" consisted of a phone call - "hey, ya wanna be a line trainer...??" followed by a two-hour session in the crew room with a TRE. That was it! You're a line trainer now son, off you go...
Still a great company though!