Originally Posted by
usmc-sgt
Once you get into training I would say that ANY airplane is easiest to learn if you put the effort forth. I would say that the Saab 340 is much more difficult than the dash 8 series especially the 400 and the regional jets and the 1900 is much more of a handful in the sim although more familiar from stepping up to a recip twin.
I'd agree with this. I don't have any experience in the EMB120, or the SAAB. But from the guys I know, they say they are "over engineered" airplanes that can be very systems intensive and take a lot of energy and effort get a full grasp of them. Of course, a good systems instructor can make anything easy.
But to take your point one step farther. In many cases, a plane can only be as difficult as the airline's training department/instructors make it out to be.
Some times they can get wrapped in so much minutia. If they have the "you have to know how to build it" mentality and expect you to know the torque setting on the bolts that hold the synthetic fetzer valve to the flopper stopper is, as opposed to the torque on the non-synthetic, well, whatever.