Snigs - I never informed the 'suspected student' that he had a FIS, therefore he had no reason to assume he had one. I understand the point you're making though, but cannot be fully responsible for someone elses lack of experience or stupidity (not saying he had either, for all I know he may have had an instructor sitting next to him).
I'll quote myself saying:
I guess the biggest risk would have been 'what if the donkey stops' then I'd have to messed around re-tuning another frequency for the mayday. I did have 121.5 on the standby of the second radio, so this would have taken only a few seconds. In hindsight, had I have also been at 3000ft, my course may have converged with G-ABCD, increasing chances of a mid-air.
London Info could not have helped me with traffic info for G-ABCD. I still feel that under the circumstances my decision to stay on Cot's freq was the correct one.
Edited to Add: My opening statement to 'the suspect student' was "G-DCBA, this is G-XXXX. I believe Cottesmore is closed." At which point it should be clear that no ground based services (such as D&D) would be available. I would have more than happily have relayed a Mayday from him if I was still on frequency, but appreciate not every aircraft has two radios for doing this (not that you need two, but it wouldnt be nice to leave the frequency the other chap was on to broadcast on another would it?).
FFW - no argument read. Debate is what we're here for isn't it?
