Can someone tell me what "Condition" is? Is that like prop pitch or something?
The Condition Levers in the Dash8 series are something of a "secondary" engine control. When fully aft the fuel is shut off to the engine. The next forward detent is known as "start/feather," and in that position the engines are receiving fuel, so can run, while the propeller blades are lined up fore and aft, or "feathered." When the condition levers are forward of this position, they control the pitch of the propeller blades, from MIN, which is coarse pitch and corresponds to a minimum RPM setting, to MAX (fully forward) with is fine pitch and provides the maximum possible RPM setting.
Putting Condition Levers to MAX with power at Flight Idle produces an amazing amount of drag, which is why the airspeed bled off so quickly.
As an aside, my Dash8 experience comes from two different 100-series operations. In neither one were the condition levers moved in flight without a command from the PF and the action taken by the PM. Seems to me like automatically going Condition Levers MAX as part of the gear down flow is not a good idea - lowers the situational awareness of the PF that they need to adjust power.
Then again, I think the way stall training is done at most airlines including Colgan is a prime cause of this crash. Capt. Renslow probably had flown many, many approaches to stalls with the autopilot off and no trimming below a certain speed, so he would have been used to applying back pressure on the controls (to minimize altitude loss, or even, with some check airmen, lose no altitude) while the stick shaker was shaking. Muscle memory is a powerful thing, and if he applied the back pressure he was used to giving an untrimmed airplane to one that was trimmed to 130 knots while adding 75% power the resulting rapid pitch up is not, in hindsight, surprising. I suspect that once the airplane did not react to him pulling back in the way he was used to, but instead pitched up rapidly into a full stall, his lack of experience left him without the correct pilot instincts to recover. There is some value to being a CFI and doing hundreds of stall recoveries with private pilot wannabes after all!