<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">if it wasn't for the 10knot tailwind, would probably have made the runway. </font>
Know the area well, I did my PPl at Dunkeswell a long time ago, and had a light twin based at Exeter for a while as well.
Sorry, but there's 2 points that are worth mentioning here.
1. Why would a TAILwind prevent reaching a runway, I would have expected it to help.
2. Honiton is indeed about 12 miles from Exeter. Dunkeswell is about 5, and has a nice long tarmac strip that would not be a problem for a 152.
Maybe gethomeitis was a factor here, but I can't help thinking that a no incident landing at Dunkeswell would have been a lot easier to sort out than trying to stretch a glide to Exeter.
OK, the RFF service at Dunkeswell is not the same as Exeter, or maybe they were not 12 miles out from Exeter, so Dunkeswell wasn't an option. On the info in the original message, sorry, but it doesn't quite add up.