Before every departure. Check system on all my aircraft have it listed.
Correct sense is done pre flight.
Also always a good idea when doing preflight, as far as possible depending on your machine, move the controls by hand and have a listen. Found one or two buggered hinges/bearings etc doing this sort of thing which resulted in the aircraft being grounded, much to the displeasure of the boss! "Just spray some crc in there to loosen it a bit you'll be right". Yeah no.