On May 12, 2:57*pm, James Robinson wrote:
wrote:

Standard practice is to wait until you have a positive rate of climb
before raising the flaps. *Raising the flaps if the airplane was on
the verge of a stall would be a big mistake. *Lowering the nose and
applying full power would be the best course of action, and once a
positive rate of climb could be achieved, then the flaps could be
raised.

There is some debate about that. *For a wing stall, you are correct,
however, some have pointed out that the PIC's experience was recently on
Saabs, which can see tail stalls in icing conditions - the Q400 isn't
subject to tail stalls. *A tail stall is most often first seen when the
flaps are extended, and the effect is for the nose to drop. *The reaction
to a tail stall is to retract the flaps, and pull the nose up. *Was that
what the captain was reacting to?

If that is the case, he had no business flying the Q400 because he
lacked sufficient training in type.