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The Overhead Join - is it dangerous?

We did

I remember reading about the overhead join here. The Norwegian CAA (LT) has released a guide about how to fly VFR in the vicinity of uncontrolled/untowered airfields, which is a good thing, I guess. I think the main reason is for everyone to fly in the same manner at AVINOR airfields outside opening hours. Outside opening hours they are uncontrolled and untowered, and there have been no common way to fly in and out.

The default entry to these fields is now the UK version of the overhead join, I think. At least that is what it looks to me.

They say this method is the preferred method everywhere, on all untowered fields and strips. Also OK perhaps? But – we already have a method since “forever” on those fields. Today these fields are inhabited, 90%, by microlight aircraft, and the standard join is what is described as “Crosswind (midfield) join”, only it is done midfield.

This will be fun Some are flying an overhead join while 90% are flying a midfield join. At AVINOR airports and any other airport that have technical/operational procedures form LT, the overhead join is demanded, unless special local procedures exist. On most of the smaller strips, the crosswind join is, if not demanded strictly speaking, at least it is expected by everyone. LT has no jurisdiction on fields and strips that don’t have procedures approved by LT, and extremely few of the local strips have such procedures.

Last Edited by LeSving at 09 Nov 15:48
The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

Same idea, but slightly different

Re image 1 – the UK overhead join leads into a crosswind leg passing above the departure end of the runway in the same way the ‘crosswind join’ in the second Avinor, not join the crosswind leg as depicted. The reason for that is that a departing aircraft will rarely be at circuit height at the end of the departure runway, while it might be there some distance from it.

Re image 2 – in a UK ‘deadside join’ you are supposed to be level at circuit height in the cross wind leg before crossing the runway, not descend at the end. This avoids descending on top of another aircraft in downwind leg.

I don’t think there is necessarily a ‘perfect way’, the Avinor way avoids an overhead join descending on top of a crosswind join at the expense of a departing aircraft climbing into one on a crosswind join.

Whether one crosses at the departure end or mid-field makes relatively little difference, IMO, it is more a matter of preference. For a beginner I would recommend departure end (unless the runway is very long) because it gives more time to set up the aircraft, do the checks and in general slows things down a bit, while personally I prefer a tighter circuit.

Biggin Hill

I moved to the UK seven years ago and, to be completely honest, I STILL dont fully understand what an OH join is. I learned to fly in Switzerland where any such overhead join shenanigans would have you flying into a valley wall half the time

I thought in the UK that:

1) if joining from the live side, I am supposed to be at 1,000 above circuit height, and then do a 360 above the airfield to check wind and other traffic, THEN turn and descend on the dead side upwind leg, then crosswind, then downwind etc.

2) If joining from the dead side, I am supposed to fly a 270 degree turn above the field then proceed as diagram 1.

In either case, as far as I am concerned, in a pressurised SEP with more limited visibility, I think the whole overhead join is insanely dangerous, as you are in and above the circuit doing complex manoeuvres for three or four times longer than necessary. I try and avoid them as much as possible, and have noticed that in towered airfields the tower almost never asks me to do so, while they may ask smaller aircraft for OH joins.

Nothing beats doing a downwind join with lots of clear position reporting.

Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom

Buckerfan wrote:

In either case, as far as I am concerned, in a pressurised SEP with more limited visibility, I think the whole overhead join is insanely dangerous, as you are in and above the circuit doing complex manoeuvres for three or four times longer than necessary.

OHJ = unnecessary movements and increases the number of risk factors !

The only time I had an overhead join with very good visibility it was at Stapleford in T67M Firefly with a barrel roll from overhead then rolling into dead-side, I could see everything bellow and in the live side, I don’t think I will get away with that stunt now and surely I need that aerobatic rating in EASA aircrafts

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

I can relate to that, when I did the UK air law and general induction when converting my licence to the UK (pre-EASA) I was equally puzzled.

However, it turned out that the only practical difference to the ‘continental’ way of doing things is that

  • in the UK when arriving from the live side, the preference if arriving significantly above circuit height is to descend on the deadside and join crosswind
  • in Germany, France, Belgium etc. the preference is to descend to circuit height before reaching the circuit and joining downwind, straight or American (45 degree), with base joins and straight-in approaches receiving different levels of frowns.

Of course, local procedures may override this for noise abatement or terrain reasons, or for no other reason than being located in Germany.

Last Edited by Cobalt at 09 Nov 17:29
Biggin Hill

Ha!

Just for fun I did a Google search for “Overhead Join”. There are dozens of diagrams to see. And guess what, every single damn diagram is different. Some show doing a full 360 in the overhead before starting the descent on the deadside, some show joining via a high crosswind and then descending on the deadside, some a weird teardrop thing on the deadside etc etc. And none of them explain what is supposed to happen when joining from the live side.

Its a F+++ing joke. I am willing to bet £1,000 the OHJ is a confusing, dangerous, antiquated British anachronism dating back to the days when everyone was flying Tiger Moths at 50 kts, no-one had radios, and they were looking for light signals from their squadron leader in the tower.

Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom

In a very fast aircraft the overhead join is not ideal I agree.
Other than that, at a non controlled field with several aircraft ariving, if everyone has good airmanship, the overhead join allows time to set your spacing nicely.
You can ‘tighten and nip the corners’ of the positions to get into downwind slightly more quickly and the guy behind can avoid that, to take longer and space himself from you.
It avoids extending the circuit all over the place where sometimes it becomes slightly easier to loose sight of everyone.
I don’t believe what you do in the actual overhead is critical.
If you are the only one up there, an orbit in that position for spacing would work too.

If approaching and hearing others calling for the overhead, then I slow down and take a slightly longer path to the overhead. If I just continue to the circuit, where are we all gonna go? It only takes one on final to slow up and then some will be going around and maybe catching up others on downwind.
It also gives a solid position report point. How many times have you heard someone call their position and when you actually spot them, you think yeah-right that was a crap call you just made, good job I wasn’t relying on that.

I guess the issue is if in general, pilots are not happy or understanding of the OHJ it brings as many problems as it can help with.

The only time I really don’t like it, is when a field uses it intermittently and I arrive at circuit height, ready for a join and am ‘told’ to join overhead and have to climb.
If it’s in their plate, and I’m expecting it, I’m quite happy with that.

United Kingdom

I have to admit I don’t pay a huge amount of attention to trying to find and then fly the ‘perfect’ overhead join. I think it has its uses as mentioned above, but the way I see it is, arrive in the overhead above circuit altitude (nominally ~1000’ above), descend (or continue descending if higher) on the dead side to arrange joining on a crosswind leg roughly across the departure end of the runway.

Unless good reason to do otherwise, if I am told to join overhead or decide to join overhead, that is what I will do from any direction. Sometimes this results in doing a large turn overhead, sometimes its effectively a crosswind join apart from staying a bit higher until on the deadside.

It’s always worked for me, and if traffic/local rules permit I will always choose a more convenient join when I can.

United Kingdom

Its a F+++ing joke. I am willing to bet £1,000 the OHJ is a confusing, dangerous, antiquated British anachronism dating back to the days when everyone was flying Tiger Moths at 50 kts, no-one had radios, and they were looking for light signals from their squadron leader in the tower.

At least in Norway, it is allowed to fly without radio, and fly at 50 kts. On these strips there are no towers and no light signals. That’s the reason why the “crosswind join” has become a sort of standard. It shows people on the ground that you are coming in to land, and it gives you some oversight of the traffic and the strip.

IMO the overhead join is a better way to do the same thing, it gives all parties more time, and the pilot gets a much better view of what is going on. Maybe it is a bit “overdone” ? But so what?

The odd thing is that the CAA wants us to to this on AVINOR fields when they are closed. At those field radio is mandatory, blind transmissions are mandatory. The CAA also want us to do them as standard on all smaller strips, but at those places (most of them) the CAA has no jurisdiction anyway.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway
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