The students calls may have been late but would have been made and a final call was made after the ready for departure call - so you must have missed this.
I'm sorry but I simply don't believe this. I believe the calls went as follows:
Me: "ready for departure"
Wait a while, nobody said anything.
Me, having seen nothing on the approach, as I crossed the hold: "lining up".
Them: "final"
Me, following logic described earlier "taking off"
Them: "thanks very much, you just made us go around"
Me: "very sorry, didn't see anyone, didn't hear anyone"
Them: "we called final after you called lining up"
Me: "but I'd already crossed the hold by then"
If they are now remembering that they called final
before I called "lining up" then that's not what I heard at the time and
that's not what they said at the time. Or, of course, maybe they're referring to a different incident.
How long after his "final" call did he go around? If it was less than about forty five seconds
Lots less. Not sure how long really, but might have been as little as five seconds, I really don't think it was more than twenty seconds.
sometimes we fail to see aircraft on approach (especially when they are lower than you expect to see them - flapless
That may indeed have contributed to my failure to see them. On my own approach, with full flaps, I was concentrating (amongst other things) on not getting too low with respect to that tree; I probably wouldn't have thought to look for anyone even lower than I had been!
Just a note on A/G radio. There is no requirement for response to any calls other than those requesting airfield information. All other calls are effectively made blind and are for the purposes of other pilots in the facinity of the airfield.
Yes indeed. I'd hoped that my "ready" call would provoke a resonse from any conflicting traffic, such as a "late base" or "turning final" call from someone who hadn't yet called "final", but no such call came. I can however appreciate that a student concentrating on other things might not have thought to make such a response, and that the instructor might not have thought it appropriate to intervene just then.