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Well, Theo - back when I lived in So. Calif. the accepted place to go for
the "$100 hamburger" was the Camarillo airport about 40 miles north of LA.
This place had so much traffic on a Saturday morning (including Lancairs,
Long eze's, commuter flights, students doing bounce and go's and the
occasional CAF Bearcat or resurrected Connie) that we were very often
requested to do an overhead approach just to fit in. The instructions were
always "report 2 miles, maintain 1600 ft., break left at mid-field, enter
pattern on down-wind abeam the tower".

Always wishing to impress the gang sitting outside at the restaurant with
the Lancair's speed and nimbleness, I usually kept the reflex in until
starting the break (so I wouldn't have to slow too much). At the break, I
would pull the throttle and pitch up strongly to drop my air speed to about
160 IAS (MPH) whereupon I put the flaps in neutral (causing further
slowing). A strong cross-control then allowed me to descend to pattern
altitude (be careful of the cross-control, you'll drop like a rock) while
slowing to gear speed. Gear down abeam the numbers and then a normal base
and final to the runway.

This all has to be done by the numbers - 1,2,3 - in rapid sequence so
there's little or no time to go thru your landing check list, so I strongly
recommend thorough practice at altitude until it's second nature or the
sound you hear will be very expensive as the propeller gets very short and
the belly gets sanded thru just under your buns.

Done right, it's a viable arrival method and there's nothing wrong with it.
Done wrong, you'll garner a lot of unwelcome attention from the Friendly
Aviation Administration.

Dan Schaefer

LML website:   http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html
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Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com.