"Slick" wrote in message ...
I think this is why they teach us never to use the brake lock, for
anything.
Instead they tell us to stand on the brakes during run up. You learn real
quick not to follow anyone too close when in line for take off and playing
with charts because you can get distracted and start moving but not notice
it.

What does the parking brake have to do with the pilot walking into the prop?
Getting anywhere near the front of an airplane with a running engine is
something you just don't do.
I'm figuring he did one of two things. It was cold out, so he thought he
would start it first, let the engine idle and warm up while he finished the
walk-around, or he forgot to pull wheel chocks.
There was a prop strike story not too long ago, a pilot left the engine
running at the FBO. He was either picking up or dropping off a young child.
He watched the child walk right into the prop. The moral here is, if anyone
is going to be near the front of the plane, shut it down.