Well - what would YOU do??
A couple of months ago I was flying home 'oop North, and was in the Stoke on Trent area. There was a very strong westerly wind blowing. I was listening out on Manch, when I heard an R44 asking for assistance as he was low on fuel, and was looking for a suitable airfield to land at. He was given a vector and distance to Barton, but had to decline it as at his current groundspeed he would not have had enough fuel to make it.
Eventually they settled on Woodford. Manch contacted them, and put the R44 over to them. (I don't think that Woodford actually accepted any "visiting" aircraft, but agreed to this due to the circumstances). Well we flipped over onto Woodford and listened out. The R44 made it Ok in the end, though he didnt sound to have much gas left when he arrived.
Now..my co-pilot on the day (a QFI (H)) was not overly impressed with this, and pointed out that the pilot would now be subject to a severe nose-poking from the CAA. He said if it was him, he would have just found himself a nice flat field to land in, caught a bus home and come back with a few jerry cans of juice. Nobody would be any the wiser, he would have no forms to fill in, no questions to answer, and he wouldn't have run the risk of actually running out of fuel before he reached Woodford. And perhaps the inconvenience would have made him be a bit more careful in future.
At first I poo-poohed this, saying what a good boy he had been, declaring his troubles and looking for help, etc etc. . However afterwards, I could see that he did have a point, especially the running out of fuel bit.
So gentlemen, ...who would have landed, and who would have carried on??