Me: "Unable to comply due to low cloud base, request xxx join"
ATC: "xxx join approved"
There. That's not difficult, is it?
Me: "Unable to comply do an OHJ due to cloud base, request XXX join"
ATC(?): "Do whatever you want, this is RADIO"
Seems too many people treat "Radio" like it is ATC. You always hear pilots "requesting" stuff from RADIO.
Actually this is a very good point, where most airfields are RADIO then "ATC" has no authority to tell a pilot what to do. So the other day, I flew into an airfield I know likes the OHJ. So I thought I'd do what they wanted and said "joining overhead" and the radio guy came back with "be aware they are gliding today" so I said "ok, mind if we join on base then?" he said "pilot descretion, this is a A/G radio"....(I knew and was just being polite)....so I said "ok, joining left base 24".
I think that if people joined at the most convienient place in the circuit, then that is best. I joined from the dead side at Compton Abbas the other day as I was coming from the South. I joined on a base somewhere else, and overhead at my home field as it was closed, I wanted to see the windsock, and from 3000 I could glide all the way to landing without upsetting the neighbours.