Were you screening him then mate?
Seriously, I remember doing something similar in Norway when I was screening a new arrival to 47 Sqn. We ended up dipping the tank with the Bass Broom handle to see if there was fuel in there. There was about 4 inches - so not long. That was the time when people used to 'gloss over' the fuel reconciliation sums - something that became second nature when flying commercially (in my experience anyway).
Then you could play the internal transfer to FULL and then pump a measured amount out into other tanks to balance (on the serviceable gauges). Deep joy
The "mythical" 12'o'clock drop 1,000 lbs, yep remember it well.