Originally Posted by
Dubes
I pre-flight for a minimum of 10 minutes, regardless of the weather. That is how I was taught though.
Personally, I have never seen a commercial pilot pre-flight the airplane he is about to depart on. I always thought there was someone at the airport going around pre-flighting the exterior of the aircraft. I could be wrong though. Pre-flighting a jumbo jet wouldn't be too bad of an exercise
.
One of the pilots does it, usually the first officer. It takes about 5 minutes on the outside, actually less time than a 172. You don't check fluids or physically wiggle control surfaces on a typical airliner.