Citationjet (C525/C526) - CJ I / II / III / IV
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35; Flight Crew Total 5500; Flight Crew Type 600
Situational Awareness
Conflict NMAC
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Procedure; Human Factors
We were given a crossing altitude of at or above 3;000 FT over the airport to join downwind for [the] runway...given this; we crossed at approximately 3;080 FT and immediately turned and began a normal profile descent as we were in the pattern and on downwind. We received at least one traffic alert and immediately saw a training aircraft below us. We advised Tower they had just put us on top of another aircraft and we stopped our profile descent and sped up to get ahead of the slower aircraft. The Tower advised there was 500 FT separation and it should be fine; however; he immediately advised the other aircraft to stop their approach and made them turn. There was apparently some serious stress from this Controller as they immediately changed controllers. We finished our approach without incident and landed safely. I asked Ground for the Tower's number and spoke to the manager. I advised him that his Controller had placed us in the pattern on approach right on top of another aircraft needlessly. We spoke about 30 minutes but I never felt he really understood the whole matter and I strongly felt [traffic] could have easily been separated with better planning. This is how accidents happen as better separation with a bunch of student pilots at this airport would make the pattern a much safer environment.
C-525 Captain reported NMAC that he felt could have been avoided with better ATC technique.