Narrative:

The travis TRACON ATC facility was dangerously overburdened and confused. I believe this was the result of a trainee controller who could not handle all of the aircraft. He did not manage speed of the various aircraft and several times vectored aircraft off the approach course due to conflicts.returning from a trip VFR; I found that my home field ccr was under a marine layer. I obtained an IFR clearance and started the procedure at rejoy. The controller told me that because of multiple aircraft; he'd probably put me in a box pattern somewhere; meaning vectors around an undefined area. I've been through this before with this TRACON. Have they never heard of asking someone to hold at a fix? Because they are vectoring aircraft in circles; they get overwhelmed quickly. I asked if I could expect to intercept the final approach course on the turn around the circle (having had them screw that up the last two times) and was told to expect that.after the 360; I was approaching the final approach course. He hadn't cleared me yet; but they usually say to 'track inbound.' however; at the last second; and just as the autopilot started to intercept; the controller came on and said for me to fly a different heading on the other side of the facility. The controller had given me no warning that he would in fact not clear me to intercept the course. I questioned this and he apologized. He then reversed himself and told me to turn back to intercept the course and cleared me for the approach.I got established; hit the FAF which was right at the top of the layer and beginning a descent; when I noticed on TCAS an aircraft that was about 1 mile in front and 200 feet above. I called the controller and asked about the traffic and he said; 'uh; aircraft X; yeah; uh; approach clearance cancelled; turn left to 030.' I admit to getting really angry and said: 'excuse me; but now you're making me circle a second time? That's just going to waste a lot of fuel. I'm just trying to understand where he's going and whether I can continue the approach.' to which the controller then said ok; you're cleared for the approach; which I confirmed. However; by this time I was getting behind; was in the soup; still looking at the TCAS and realized I was way above the glideslope. I'm not sure but think the approach didn't capture because I got vectored back inside the FAF. So; I ended up going missed. Soon thereafter someone clearly more experienced came on and got me back around.the TRACON needs to develop better procedures for its trainees. It is not sequencing traffic into approaches; but rather sending pilots on multiple vectors to try to manage the situation. They are not providing any warning when approaching the final approach course as to whether we will be cleared to intercept. This is particularly problematic on a coupled approach where the autopilot captures the course and then the pilot has to disengage it or switch to heading mode. That's not a good time to be making those distracting changes.I did call the TRACON to ask a supervisor to review the tapes and was promised a return phone call but none was forthcoming.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot reports of poor service with Travis TRACON on multiple times and especially on the trip reported.

Narrative: The Travis TRACON ATC facility was dangerously overburdened and confused. I believe this was the result of a trainee controller who could not handle all of the aircraft. He did not manage speed of the various aircraft and several times vectored aircraft off the approach course due to conflicts.Returning from a trip VFR; I found that my home field CCR was under a marine layer. I obtained an IFR clearance and started the procedure at REJOY. The controller told me that because of multiple aircraft; he'd probably put me in a box pattern somewhere; meaning vectors around an undefined area. I've been through this before with this TRACON. Have they never heard of asking someone to hold at a fix? Because they are vectoring aircraft in circles; they get overwhelmed quickly. I asked if I could expect to intercept the final approach course on the turn around the circle (having had them screw that up the last two times) and was told to expect that.After the 360; I was approaching the final approach course. He hadn't cleared me yet; but they usually say to 'track inbound.' However; at the last second; and just as the autopilot started to intercept; the controller came on and said for me to fly a different heading on the other side of the FAC. The controller had given me no warning that he would in fact not clear me to intercept the course. I questioned this and he apologized. He then reversed himself and told me to turn back to intercept the course and cleared me for the approach.I got established; hit the FAF which was right at the top of the layer and beginning a descent; when I noticed on TCAS an aircraft that was about 1 mile in front and 200 feet above. I called the controller and asked about the traffic and he said; 'uh; Aircraft X; yeah; uh; approach clearance cancelled; turn left to 030.' I admit to getting really angry and said: 'Excuse me; but now you're making me circle a second time? That's just going to waste a lot of fuel. I'm just trying to understand where he's going and whether I can continue the approach.' To which the controller then said OK; you're cleared for the approach; which I confirmed. However; by this time I was getting behind; was in the soup; still looking at the TCAS and realized I was way above the glideslope. I'm not sure but think the approach didn't capture because I got vectored back inside the FAF. So; I ended up going missed. Soon thereafter someone clearly more experienced came on and got me back around.The TRACON needs to develop better procedures for its trainees. It is not sequencing traffic into approaches; but rather sending pilots on multiple vectors to try to manage the situation. They are not providing any warning when approaching the final approach course as to whether we will be cleared to intercept. This is particularly problematic on a coupled approach where the autopilot captures the course and then the pilot has to disengage it or switch to heading mode. That's not a good time to be making those distracting changes.I did call the TRACON to ask a supervisor to review the tapes and was promised a return phone call but none was forthcoming.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.