Not to mention, Sparkle, that some airlines have engineers or ground technicians who carry out the "daily" preflight. It is often not done by aircrew - certainly in the larger airlines.... Gives the tech department time to fix any problems before we even get near the aircraft. Mind you our aircraft are only on the ground for a few hours at most - often landing at 2 am and heading out again at 5ish. We don't do preflights at our home base as a general rule and often board after pax boarding has started. Cabin crew will be on board about 30 mins before we arrive and have done the cabin security checks.