Compylot, if you must be so condescending towards those here that willingly share their cockups, please at least recognise that 'folk' is already plural.
At the risk of your derision, my control jam story. Departing in an old DH Heron I had the control column jam in the position needed to rotate, which was quite a long way aft. After very carefully dragging it around using trim and without changing gear or flap position, we found that an over enthusiastic baggage handler had forced one bag too many into the forward locker, which was under the cockpit floor. It had forced some loose metal panelling up just enough to foul the elevator system.
I rather suspect that my "full and free" checks had become a bit lax and had only been done to about half travel. Lesson learned.