If you had found the piano would you have made them leave it behind and be a party pooper or would you have ripped them a new one for trying to smuggle equipment on the manifest but turned a blind eye for the sake of the farewell doo?

Skunkerama...

If I had found a fully built piano (or parts thereof), on board and not listed as official freight (manifested) then its off.....! Followed by an incident report....

Given that I suspect that the second piano was stripped down and therefore probably hidden among the closed containers, then there is not much that could be done. All the freight was check weighed by movers, so no issues regarding load weight on the trim, which would have been my main concern.

I don't want to be a party pooper, but with a little forethought, contacting the det location ahead of arrival, and getting them to advertise for a cheap upright in their local rag, would probably achieve the same result without all the hassle. :ok:

PP I think it was the custom to "launch" the Wardroom piano off the cat at the end of each commission of a carrier.

John Eacott and others may be along soon to confirm this.

Pete and Dud are (or were) similarly fired off a cat at the end of one of their series! Attached to an upright piano no less!

Was this because Ark Royal (as I remember it) had come to the end of her commission?

You sir are the finest example of what is wrong with the RAF.
:ugh:

More than his jobsworth..........not a lot.

QFIhawkman- check your PM's. Ta.

QFIhawkman,
Yes, at the end of the final deployment after the jets had flown off for the last time; quite a place to be as a first tourist.
To rub it in, the final 'arrested' landing was a spoof one with a SeaKing and a grapnelling hook on a rope !!
pp

Actually Beagle, when I went through THOM it had plenty of atmosphere - but then I base that on the people not the building - and most of those people were "spanner-w**kers". Perhaps your perception was based on the view you have out of your own rectum?

Fantastic bite Beags..

...but can you strike and haul it in? :}

The tiddlers I throw back.

Particularly the oily ones!