Narrative:

We were cleared by chicago center to descend to 2900 MSL and call the field in sight. We picked up the field at seven to eight miles. Chicago center cleared us the visual to runway 18 and to contact tower. I turned right downwind. We contacted tower. Dbq tower told us that we were cleared the visual to runway 18 and to continue on our right downwind to 18. The dbq tower controller stated that he was going to call our base. There were three to four other small aircraft in the pattern. We continued on our left downwind until we lost sight of the airfield. The controller then started calling out traffic to us while on the extended downwind. As a direct result of the excessive downwind extension we were put in a situation where a conflict was beginning to evolve. He was talking to the target aircraft. We received a TCAS TA and then picked up a visual on the target. The controller then said to turn base. We stated that we were no longer visual with the field. He then said head to the field. We did while at 2900 ft; however; we were not able to pick up the field until 3 to 4 miles because of the haze coupled with looking into the sun. We were not in a safe position to continue the approach so we went around. We were handed off to chicago center again and were given vectors for the ILS runway 36. While on final approach to runway 36 we saw on TCAS 3 aircraft on opposite end approaches to runway 18. This concerned us because if we had to go around we would be in conflict with traffic heading the opposite direction. We checked with tower and he was clearing one to do a stop and go. This concerned us further. The tower controller then vectored both aircraft away from us after we queried him. We landed uneventfully. This event occurred; in my opinion; due to a tower controller unable to effectively deconflict dissimilar aircraft. He also was attempting to maintain direct control over our flight; yet we were cleared the visual approach. This caused confusion. We were over 9 miles from the airport; well outside of the class D airspace and he is calling our base. Then his plan was to have us landing in one direction with three other aircraft landing or shooting an approach to the opposite runway. I have never seen that before. It made no sense to us.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An E145 Captain reports poor handling by DBQ Tower put their flight in conflict with VFR traffic for the airport.

Narrative: We were cleared by Chicago Center to descend to 2900 MSL and call the field in sight. We picked up the field at seven to eight miles. Chicago Center cleared us the visual to Runway 18 and to contact tower. I turned right downwind. We contacted tower. DBQ Tower told us that we were cleared the visual to Runway 18 and to continue on our right downwind to 18. The DBQ Tower Controller stated that he was going to call our base. There were three to four other small aircraft in the pattern. We continued on our left downwind until we lost sight of the airfield. The Controller then started calling out traffic to us while on the extended downwind. As a direct result of the excessive downwind extension we were put in a situation where a conflict was beginning to evolve. He was talking to the target aircraft. We received a TCAS TA and then picked up a visual on the target. The Controller then said to turn base. We stated that we were no longer visual with the field. He then said head to the field. We did while at 2900 FT; however; we were not able to pick up the field until 3 to 4 miles because of the haze coupled with looking into the sun. We were not in a safe position to continue the approach so we went around. We were handed off to Chicago Center again and were given vectors for the ILS Runway 36. While on final approach to Runway 36 we saw on TCAS 3 aircraft on opposite end approaches to Runway 18. This concerned us because if we had to go around we would be in conflict with traffic heading the opposite direction. We checked with Tower and he was clearing one to do a stop and go. This concerned us further. The Tower Controller then vectored both aircraft away from us after we queried him. We landed uneventfully. This event occurred; in my opinion; due to a Tower Controller unable to effectively deconflict dissimilar aircraft. He also was attempting to maintain direct control over our flight; yet we were cleared the visual approach. This caused confusion. We were over 9 miles from the airport; well outside of the Class D airspace and he is calling our base. Then his plan was to have us landing in one direction with three other aircraft landing or shooting an approach to the opposite runway. I have never seen that before. It made no sense to us.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.