My inferior piloting skills would suggest to me that as you joined downwind, you wouldn't have been 'in the circuit' until the point you joined, therefore any question of illegality is a bit spurious. As long as all your subsequent turns are in the correct direction, I can't see what the issue is.
Unless I'm completely missing something, there is nothing wrong with making a right turn to join downwind for a left hand circuit? I do it every single time I approach my home airfield from the south east and 22 (left hand) is in use.
All this depends on how far out you are, do the right hand turns 5 miles out and you are OK, do them half a mile away and you are not, you might be in your right turn and someone else turning the correct way, you are then both blind to the other aircraft.
Guys, I think you are missing the point. I don't have an issue with turning right onto downwind but with a LEFT HAND CIRCUIT in use,
WHY did the Instructor recommend joining RIGHT DOWNWIND (note the use of the word
RIGHT) which means I am joining DEADSIDE. He wanted me to then join right base and, once more, right turn onto final. And this although their plate specifically says "No overhead or deadside joins".
The only time I will be "in the pattern" is when I turn onto final.....
I went to the airfield today and asked him about this - his response - "well, we all do it, saves money and flying is hardly cheap."
To say I was flabbergasted by this response is an understatement. In order to save 4 minutes worth of fuel / billing time, the FI there believes it is "ok" to ignore joining procedures. I asked him what the procedure was if we were on (eg) right base on a left hand circuit and non radio traffic was on base - it's a disaster waiting to happen......
PS: His answer for the potential conflict: as we're not in the circuit, we give way..... this assumes we see the conflicting traffic..... Errr, no thanks, I'd rather not be a statistic which says I ignored published joining procedures, would rather pay an additional tenner or whatever the cost is and join correctly.....