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?

Perhaps, but even that doesn't make sense either. The airplane stall
warning system/ stick shaker was activating. This would only indicate a
stall condition is imminent for the wing. The stall warning system does
not indicate anything about the tail, so the only corrective measure to
take for a stick shaker would be a conventional wing stall recovery,
such as full available power, prop forward, pitch down, don't bring up
the flaps until a positive rate of climb is achieved.

I'm not familiar with the specific stall recovery for that type, but you
get the idea. If the pilot pushed the stick over to recover from a
non-existent tail stall, that was a bad move. I haven't seen anything
to suggest that happened however.