Aircraft type please?
Cessna 182A, 'hadn't flown in a month or so, owner left it, and asked me to pick it up. Cessna control wheel lock installed. Did my walk around, but did not notice that one aileron pushrod was bent. The effect was to droop the aileron. It took off great STOL with a drooped aileron, but the control wheel was well over in flight. Aileron system inspected, pushrod replaced, ailerons rerigged, and it was fine.
Cessna 150M, 'hadn't flown in many months, let at YYZ. Owner wanted it flown out so as to no longer incur parking fees. Cessna control wheel lock installed. Did my walk around, everything looked normal. Everything seemed normal in flight, until short final, with full flaps extended. I went to flare, and the control wheel jammed in pitch. A desperate and hearty pull released the jam, and I landed with no grace whatever. In cruise flight, the hole in the control wheel tube is "outside" the plastic bearing in the instrument panel. When you retrim after extending full flaps, that hold goes just inside the plastic bearing. I had not noticed that there was a burr around that hole in the tube from the controls banging it for months at Toronto. The burr had caught on the inside of the bearing just enough to jam when I was pulling back and up on the control wheel. (My pre flight control check had been done without lifting the control wheel up, so the burr did not catch - the bottom seemed not to have been burred). I carefully filed the burr off the hole, and it was fine. I had the plane inspected anyway.
In both cases, knowing what I was looking for preflight would have revealed the defect, but, in both cases, I was not looking for that - now I am! Locked control surfaces, and free cockpit controls assure zero risk of flight control systems damage from winds on the flight controls.