gadude said (in previous thread)
If you need to joing downwind and are flying down wind to make it safer because now you can sort your self and the rest off the circuit out, than what have you been doing on your aproach?
Furthermore to the above post, what happens on arrival to an aerodrome with a few ultralight aircraft not equipped with radio putting around the circuit?
The extra time afforded in the circuit by joining downwind instead of base helps you to build a complete picture of all traffic in the circuit, not just that inferred from radio transmissions. Add to this some students I've encountered in the past flying an hour of circuits at a busy NSW aerodrome with the VHF switched off, and surely more time in the circuit for see-and-avoid starts to make sense?
toronto_flyer