As a Naval Flight Officer on a 707-type airframe, I have had quite a bit of training/practice with doors, hatches, and slides. In fact, every year we would go through the FAA smoke lab in Oklahoma City for egress training. After a classroom portion on evacuation procedures and some noteworthy accidents, we would go to a widebody aircraft fuselage outfitted with a standard interior. The fuselage was on hydraulic arms which were used to place it into an unusual attitude. While seated, various emergency lighting systems were demonstrated in a clear cabin, then the cabin was filled with smoke and the lights were demoed again to show their effectiveness. After the demos, we evacuated the plane, but not directly to the door, instead you went aft up a spiral staircase and then down a square one to illustrate a 747 interior and then out the door and down the slide. It was a great experience. In fact, we were told that they run the smoke lab for various groups, here is a link: http://www.faa.gov/education_researc...l/cabinsafety/
Additionally, we would us a training slide on our aircraft to practice evacuation procedures.
While I was an instructor and earlier a student in an Air Force training squadron flying the military version of the 737-200, we also were required to do evacuation training for the 737, which involve a mock-up of the flightdeck, overwings, and rear door. For the flightdeck, we would climb out the pilot window and down the safety strap. For the overwings, we would go out the hatch and slide down the trailing edge flaps to ground. And, the rear door had a full-size training slide.
As if all of this was not enough, in college, I worked for a week of spring break at the Goodyear Company in Phoenix as a slide tester on an Airbus mock-up. In order for the slides and aircraft to be certified, they are tested in a variety of scenarios emphasizing speed and durability. For a week, over 100 college students would put the slides through their paces. It didn't pay much, but it was a lot of fun.