Narrative:

I was inbound to the fly-in at casa grande; az talking to the event arrival and reported over the rest area on interstate 10 as outlined in the NOTAM for the event. They cleared me to the intersection to turn inbound on the 45 for runway 5. As I proceeded inbound I saw a piper arrow pass on my left approximately one half mile east of my position going the opposite direction. He made a 180 degree turn and proceeded inbound. Arrival cleared him in as they did me. The NOTAM states that an airspeed of 90 KTS be maintained and if a trailing airplane cannot maintain separation he must return to the initial point. I was maintaining 90 KTS and the arrow was going approximately 120 KTS and he was overtaking me on my left just as I entered midfield downwind. I reported my position to arrival about the time the arrow turned downwind east of the departure end of runway 5. Arrival told me to follow him. I said I was ahead of him but they said 'follow him'. I was at 2;500 with the correct altimeter setting and he reported in at 2;500 also. When I saw him just before I turned downwind he was lower than me; but I am not sure how much. I widened out my downwind to let him go by. When I spotted him again he was not more than 100 ft below me going considerably faster than my 90 KTS and crossed my flight path from 8 o'clock to 2 O'clock about the time I passed the approach end of runway 5 and proceeded to a position to turn base. I followed him and was turned over to the event tower. The tower did not appear to know where anyone in the pattern was. As I approached the mid point of my base leg; a cessna passed in front of me on final. The tower cleared the arrow to land and the cessna reported in and it was the first time I had heard a transmission from him. When I finally got a hold of tower they did not seen to be expecting me and told me to follow the cessna which had by this time reported in. The arrow rolled out the entire length of the runway and the cessna was told to go around. I landed without further incident. It was my observation that both arrival and tower lost complete track of the inbound airplanes under their control and did not hold the traffic to the published NOTAM procedures.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot reported a NMAC during pattern entry while under control of Copperstate Arrival. He suggested possible non compliance with NOTAM procedures existed by pilots involved.

Narrative: I was inbound to the fly-in at Casa Grande; AZ talking to the event arrival and reported over the rest area on Interstate 10 as outlined in the NOTAM for the event. They cleared me to the intersection to turn inbound on the 45 for Runway 5. As I proceeded inbound I saw a Piper Arrow pass on my left approximately one half mile east of my position going the opposite direction. He made a 180 degree turn and proceeded inbound. Arrival cleared him in as they did me. The NOTAM states that an airspeed of 90 KTS be maintained and if a trailing airplane cannot maintain separation he must return to the initial point. I was maintaining 90 KTS and the Arrow was going approximately 120 KTS and he was overtaking me on my left just as I entered midfield downwind. I reported my position to Arrival about the time the Arrow turned downwind east of the departure end of Runway 5. Arrival told me to follow him. I said I was ahead of him but they said 'Follow him'. I was at 2;500 with the correct altimeter setting and he reported in at 2;500 also. When I saw him just before I turned downwind he was lower than me; but I am not sure how much. I widened out my downwind to let him go by. When I spotted him again he was not more than 100 FT below me going considerably faster than my 90 KTS and crossed my flight path from 8 o'clock to 2 O'clock about the time I passed the approach end of Runway 5 and proceeded to a position to turn base. I followed him and was turned over to the event tower. The tower did not appear to know where anyone in the pattern was. As I approached the mid point of my base leg; a Cessna passed in front of me on final. The tower cleared the Arrow to land and the Cessna reported in and it was the first time I had heard a transmission from him. When I finally got a hold of tower they did not seen to be expecting me and told me to follow the Cessna which had by this time reported in. The Arrow rolled out the entire length of the runway and the Cessna was told to go around. I landed without further incident. It was my observation that both Arrival and Tower lost complete track of the inbound airplanes under their control and did not hold the traffic to the published NOTAM procedures.

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.