Do you have any suggestions in mind as how to report where you are when inbound/outbound...
On paper, the current idea is great. In practice however, on busy days, with pilots who are maybe unfamiliar, or just useless at flying over a point on the ground, it doesn't work and it can become difficult. Situational awareness is in no way aided by the person on the ground with the radio, as they give no idea of other traffic. So all you get of any use is a runway, circuit direction and QFE.
My understanding of the echo arrival is to join from bang overhead Selby (presumably now at 2000' QFE) and route directly to the airfield to arrive overhead and descend on the dead side of the circuit. On a few occasions I've heard club aircraft call up on an "echo arrival" as I've approached Selby, and seen them scattered all over the place. One even routing down from the direction of Acaster Malbis. Obviously we don't all want to meet in midair, and you could argue they were seeing and avoiding, but it's slack and comes down to poor airmanship when people are saying they are joining on the echo arrival, and they are in reality 3-6 miles off course. So it would be better, in my opinion, to say you are "2 miles North East of Selby" or "overhead Selby" etc then everyone knows where to look.
Another silly "rule" there is having everyone do an overhead join, when conditions could easily warrant a join onto base or final.
Anyway, I'm not trying to Sherburn bash, just wishing that some people operating from there would try a bit harder to follow their own rules.
Surely no ATZ means no MATZ? Also, why stay up at 500' if you're going to pass the runway? Surely if you're belting down the centreline at 5', you'd still be at least 500' from anything else?