Standard overhead joins wrong...?

Important: These forums are for discussions between SkyDemon users. They are not routinely monitored by SkyDemon staff so any urgent issues should be sent directly to our Customer Support.

Standard overhead joins wrong...?

Author	Message
ChrisB	C ChrisB posted 9/5/2022 12:33:07 PM HOT Topic Details Share Topic
C Group: Forum Members Posts: 5, Visits: 11	Having received the runway in use and circuit direction when close to an airfield I do some hurried mental gymnastics to work out how to approach for a standard overhead join. I recently discovered the SD “Make Approach” function and was very pleased to see there is a “Standard Overhead” join option. The first time I used it in the air was arriving at Enstone. I selected Make Approach, Runway 26, Standard Overhead. A nice big purple arrow appeared “for guidance on where to join” (to quote the SD video tutorial). I started heading towards the arrow, but after even more hurried mental gymnastics realised I would be joining from the opposite direction to that required and made corrections. I have since used the same function arriving at other airfields and they are all wrong. According to SD a standard overhead join is approached from the dead side, with descent on the live side to join the circuit. According to the CAA a correct standard overhead join is approached from the live side, with descent on the dead side to join the circuit on the crosswind leg. This is more than just misleading it is plain wrong. At worst, a pilot following SD’s guidance would conflict with a pilot doing a ‘correct’ overhead join. At best he would be joining high on the downwind leg and making a total hash of the circuit. I’ve attached below a screenshot from SD and a CAA diagram of a standard overhead join to illustrate my point. Comments welcome – is there something I’m missing here? Chris
	Reply Like 5
Reply
David Johnstone	David Johnstone posted 9/7/2022 1:22:31 PM Post Details Share Post
Group: Forum Members Posts: 16, Visits: 602	This topic is very dear to my heart as several years ago I was very nearly killed in a mid air collision which was graded category A by the airprox board. The problem was that the other aircraft had a different interpretation of an overhead join to the CAA approved one. I was approaching the airfield from the live side and so carried out the standard OHJ as per the CAA chart. The other aircraft was approaching from the dead side. I reached the airfield first and called overhead. 5 seconds later the other aircraft called overhead. I could not see him so commenced an immediate descending turn to the left to join the circuit for 27Left The FISO on duty asked if I had contact with the other aircraft, I replied Negative, but immediately confirmed that. I could now see a twin on a collision course about 100 yards off my right wing. Collision avoided. But !! Lessons learned, the twin carried out a dead side join ignoring the fact that I was already established in an OHJ. The OHJ only works safely if people get into a one way system, imagine coming to a roundabout and people go either way depending on how the approach the roundabout. Suicidal. The sad truth is so many people have an incorrect understanding of the OHJ.
	Reply Like 9