Long Final is 4 to 8 miles, and joining this way is part of normal aviation procedure, unless not allowed at that particular airfield. But you are not in the circuit, so circuit traffic has priority...which shouldn't matter, because you're so far out anyway.
When I learned to fly at Welshpool we joined on long final all the time if approaching from the North when runway 22 was being used. It would have been crazy not to. You would be flying down between the hills, and there was the runway several miles ahead of you. Why would you climb way above the hills in order to join overhead, do a circuit, and come down again?
Like anything else in aviation, joining on long final works fine if people know what they're doing. And also like everything else in aviation, it doesn't work if they don't.
G-EMMA, I sympathise, but eventually you'll have to learn not to get flummoxed by what other people are doing. And eventually (soon!) you will.
