J-O,
There are plenty of British-based pilots who think our variety of OHJ is non-ideal (see several threads on the subject...).
It basically involves joining into the overhead from any random direction and then manoeuvring to place yourself at 90 degrees to the active numbers. Once crossed, you descend on the "dead-side", turning in two stages to cross the upwind end of the runway, before passing x-wind to join somewhere downwind (most likely not more than half-way).
For me and others, there are all sorts of issues with this - e.g. you are at lower than OHJ height when crossing the climb-out path, you end up often with a D/W cut in half, the dead-side turn is not carried out by everyone in the same manner.
Done properly, you keep the airfield throughout the procedure on the same side of the aircraft and all turns are in that sense. But this assumes you know the runway you're using from far out, which, er, negates the point of the exercise....which was presumably devised pre-radio for aircraft landing in all sorts of directions.
Worst aspect of all probably is the scenario of several aircraft all joining overhead from multiple directions and being forced to hold in the OH. This is something I've seen at Shoreham, a very busy GA field on the South Coast, at weekends. You have no clear idea where the other traffic is and it's all holding at the same height. Insanity.
We really should just swallow our pride and accept the French-style system of "box-OHJ's" and inner/outer circuits. It's safer, smarter and everyone can predict where everyone else should be. It might help with noise abatement too.
...just wait for the outcry this launch in certain quarters. I'm heading for shelter....
BFA