My understanding is that one does indeed do a crosswind join at circuit height, so you need to lose the 1000ft or so during that 180 turn from the overhead to the crosswind position. This is potentially quite a radical maneuver to do in a turn whose radius is half the runway length.
what_next wrote:
So in the UK this would be a standard overhead join then
Isn’t that a very good point actually? I think so. A procedure can be very odd, but when everybody follows it, it suddenly becomes “business as usual” and works just fine. Also.not to be forgotten is that it shall work without radio. Thus, the procedure is just as much a signal from the aircraft to the ground that you intend to land.
At the risk of boring people with my original point that nobody has echoed, IMO the main danger is lack of appropriate radio communications regarding your position and intentions….again, IMO, thus is exacerbated when there is a non-ATC A/G service because they hinder free talk… The 45 entry probably works well in the US (and Australia…ie the vast majority of the world’s pilots) because of the standard position reports and no fear of direct pilot-to-pilot coordination…
FWIW I always broadcast location and intentions, far more often than I hear. I think it’s a habit from flying into uncontrolled airports in the States. Sometimes seems to me that European pilots rely more on ATC or the guy in the tower to keep things sorted out. Most VFR pilots in the US assume they have to do it themselves.
I agree, and part of the problem is pilots often being unfamiliar with the airport, so they end up calling down wind when they are not. Personally i think at non radio airfields you should start your calls on the approach at least a few miles away, giving height, position and intentions, followed by calls for joining and at each point around the circuit. You should also state your intended runway.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
I agree, and part of the problem is pilots often being unfamiliar with the airport, so they end up calling down wind when they are not.
Huh? How on Earth would you not know when you’re on downwind?
Here (in the US) the ‘standard’ calls are made 5 miles out, on the 45, downwind (here you also state intentions, i.e. full stop or t&g), base, final, rwy vacated, taxi to parking (if busy). I sometimes add a 10 mile call if I hear the field is very busy and/or another one 2 miles or so out. It’s quite normal to sort out the flow into an airport with other pilots over the radio, perhaps extending downwind to let a much slower plane land ahead, etc.
How on Earth would you not know when you’re on downwind?
Well, you will “know” you are downwind but if you have 5nm to run to the base leg then such a report might confuse people somewhat 
I am sure I wrote this before but the OHJ is IMHO dangerous because
Huh? How on Earth would you not know when you’re on downwind?
I have had pilots call downwind when they are on the “wrong” side because they have the circuit the wrong way round or because they are about to land with a tail wind, and many times more than once.
Peter wrote:
I am sure I wrote this before but the OHJ is IMHO dangerous becauseyou orbit at 2000ft AAL which is probably the same altitude at which most UK PPLs have been taught to fly enroute
you can’t see anybody behind you but if say there are 4 in the overhead and you can see only one then you know there are 3 others somewhere very close and at exactly the best height to get you
the OHJ is used at Class G ATC airfields when traffic is so heavy that ATC cannot cope anymore; in that situation I normally bugger off and come back 15 mins later, but that’s not attractive to a renter who is paying £200/hr and who is desperate to land
Agree 100%….and lack of judicious radio communications makes a dangerous situation deadly…. and again IMO, the presence of an A/G operator appears to discourage pilots from speaking up…it’s as if they somehow think the guy in the tower is doing the looking out for them…
The (UK)CAA safety publication is full of near misses in the circuit at A/G airfields…I’ve never seen anyone implicate the presence of the A/G in unintentionally suppressing life-saving situation awareness enhancing communications…it is an introspective blind-spot in the UK…(IMO)
IMO, if no one has died in the OHJ, then it is not dangerous. I don’t exactly understand how it works. What do you do when you come from the other side? (looking at the picture a few pages earlier). Lets say you have no radio, and don’t know the wind direction. What about right hand circuits?
