Well done
Sevenstrokeroll, well done for posting.
First thing to know for anyone offering advise on Pprune, is to ignore half of the feedback you get. There are quite a few people on here that use every opportunity to swing at Americans, Cirrus pilots, ATC....or anyone who are not themselves.
I have offered other people advise on the Overhead Join, which is important to know when flying inthe UK, but unknown in other parts of Europe.
Yes, the join is very similar to the UK overhead join, but there are some important differences and you avoid two important concerns I always have
1) Decending on top of someone who deemed the windsock to favour the opposite runway
2) A Pitts (or similar) at full chat, climbing to circuit hight midfield where I'd be crossing
In what was described, you are also a little higher over the airfield to avoid wire launched gliders - I would imagine 2500 vs 1000 ft makes a difference.
Lastly, for those indicating that this is only useful for "dumb" Americans who can't plan appropriately. When venturing outside the 3 airfields you were shown during training, you might at some point need to land at a different airfield than planned - either for poor weather, taking advantage of unexpected tailwind or a passanger getting sick. The planning and PPR you did from home is out the window, and you need to resort to the standard join. Standard is in some countries overhead, in some it is 90 degrees to downwind from the live side....and in some it is 45 degree.
Long story short, I'll be very likely to bring the above diagram with me if and when I go VFR flying in the States. Very helpful.