Having flown the Q400 for 2.5 years...I would have to say the airplane isn't as "fragile" as ToiletDuck would like to make it out to be. Only 3 times have I had a mechanical cancelation.

I've had some very "firm" landings in Reno and Sun Valley...and the airplane took it like a Dash 8 should.

Sure it has had it's fair share of issues...but like all things mechanical...they break and don't work 100% of the time.

During my initial training at Horizon (I came from the GA world...biggest thing I had flown was a Conquest I)...I had a great instructor. We did different configurations to stick shaker per the training plan, but we did full stalls to the pusher. The Q400 handled it well. Even during upset training we did a 110 deg bank, 15 deg nose down...and it rolled right on around and kept on going.