Strobes on at the gate may be the ground engineer checking the aeroplane for turnaround
Rainboe:
Apologies to all for the slight thread drift on this but your comment above flagged a question.
My understanding was that in a multi-crew commercial etc.... environment the walk around inspection is typically performed by the pilot flying the next sector. It makes sense that a ground engineer also perform this inspection whilst the plane is on stand but I was wondering if this inspection you mention was in addition to or replacing the walk around by the flight deck crew.
I think I know the answer but thought I would ask.