Flyin'Dutch' wrote:TopCat wrote:Never understood why people don't like it.
1. It is poorly understood by many people despite it, apparently, being simple. .....
2. It is poorly implemented in every day flying practise, see above and again at any aerodrome;
Certainly true, but it's not obvious to me that other joins are implemented well. Plenty of times I've joined downwind and had to avoid somebody else joining on a wider downwind. Occasionally on base I've met someone on base in the opposite circuit direction. Crosswind joins are flown all kinds of arbitrary distances from the upwind end of the runway.
There's scope for conflict in all of these cases, and as circuit size is often not standardised, neither will people's choice of exactly where they're going to join.
At least the overhead join is well defined, so there is at least scope for education.
3. It creates a honey pot above the airfield leading to the potential of a mid air collision;
True to an extent, but no more so than the honeypot of the downwind leg. If two or three aircraft are all approaching an uncontrolled field intending to join downwind, I feel much less safe than if I'm joining overhead, as I find them much harder to see closer to the ground and not yet necessarily at circuit height.
At least the overhead should contain aircraft at the same altitude, so seeing them will not require picking aircraft out of background clutter on the ground.
4. It requires turning in a potentially busy piece of airspace (see 3) where people are trying to work out what they need to do; the turning reducing the pilots view out of the window blanketed by pieces of wings;
Again true, but no more so than mitigating that risk by looking out before turning downwind or base.
5. It is less efficient than any other form of joining, as time required and that extra time is spent in the busiest bit of airspace of the flight, near the aerodrome - which is where the most mid air collisions happen statistically.
This is true if joining from any leg is available, but not if the standard airfield join is downwind. If you're coming from the wrong side of the circuit, you have to fly all the way round the airfield well clear of the circuit in order to then join downwind.
6. It is not something non-Brit pilots are familiar with making them joining a more difficult and non-standard thing.
Yes, I agree with that, certainly.
As I say, each to his own, and like you, I'm perfectly capable of joining other than overhead if necessary, but the extra minute in the overhead isn't enough to stop me preferring the OHJ.