A pilot entering the baz landing pattern in contact with ATC had a near miss with a departing aircra...

Narrative:

I had flown to new braunfels using flight following. Approach cancelled and I squawked 1200 and contacted the tower at baz. I was told to fly a right hand pattern on runway 35. I was northwest of the airport and I was losing altitude to get to 1;600 ft. As I passed 2;000 ft; another aircraft was climbing and was coming directly at me. I banked to the right. I reported the near miss to the tower and was told that they did not have radar and did not know where other aircraft were at the time. I proceeded to land; picked up a passenger who had dropped his aircraft off for repairs and departed back to my home base. There is a lot of student activity at baz and I think it would be safer if the pilots were talking more and keeping everyone advised as to their position. More like unicom. The tower makes one feel that they are controlling the aircraft in the local area and that a pilot would be warned of other aircraft. I was looking and also going through my checklist. The aircraft was almost head on and did not provide a good visual target until we were very close.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot entering the BAZ landing pattern in contact with ATC had a near miss with a departing aircraft. Without radar ATC stated they could not issue traffic advisories.

Narrative: I had flown to New Braunfels using flight following. Approach cancelled and I squawked 1200 and contacted the Tower at BAZ. I was told to fly a right hand pattern on Runway 35. I was northwest of the airport and I was losing altitude to get to 1;600 FT. As I passed 2;000 FT; another aircraft was climbing and was coming directly at me. I banked to the right. I reported the near miss to the Tower and was told that they did not have radar and did not know where other aircraft were at the time. I proceeded to land; picked up a passenger who had dropped his aircraft off for repairs and departed back to my home base. There is a lot of student activity at BAZ and I think it would be safer if the pilots were talking more and keeping everyone advised as to their position. More like UNICOM. The Tower makes one feel that they are controlling the aircraft in the local area and that a pilot would be warned of other aircraft. I was looking and also going through my checklist. The aircraft was almost head on and did not provide a good visual target until we were very close.

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.

Attributes
ACN	869792
Time
Date	201001
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	BAZ.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft Low Wing 1 Eng Fixed Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Private Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35 Flight Crew Total 6000 Flight Crew Type 300
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC
Miss Distance	Horizontal 20 Vertical 15

A pilot entering the baz landing pattern in contact with ATC had a near miss with a departing aircraft. Without radar ATC stated they could not issue traffic advisories.