70% of all midair collisions occur in and around the airport. I could be heading 360 to land on runway 36 at a given airport. with the OH I would need to complete six 90 degree turns just to get back to where I was!
No one is suggesting that an arrival on the runway heading should not do a long-final straight-in approach, or even join downwind if coming from the other direction. However this presumes a) you are familiar with the airfield and visual cues for the circuit and b) you have a radio and have determined the runway direction.
If you are unfamiliar with an airfield or its surroundings then I would always recommend the overhead join as the best way to orient oneself whilst still above the circuit traffic. Be honest, no-matter how hard you study the plates in advance the layout is never quite as you imagined it.
And frankly, if arriving on the deadside I am not sure what joining technique would work better than the overhead join! A lengthy detour onto long-final? An even lengthier detour onto downwind, whilst steering clear of departing traffic? And surely not descending from above into some indeterminate part of the active circuit! No - a smooth descending orbit overhead, with the final crossing of the active-runway over the depart-threshold at 1500ft to join the circuit downwind at co-altitude and at a precisley defined point (abeam depart-threshold). That for me is the safest and most efficient way.
Yes anyone trying to do it with less than 2000ft ceiling is (to use Mary's word) a numptie. But you can be one of those with any joining technique.
Of course I am only talking to pilots who take the "V" in VFR seriously. Those who consider even the most glorious CAVOK flight is an exercise in GPS programming are probably baffled by everything I have just said.
