Narrative:

Initial clearance [into sfo] was for the golden gate 6 arrival; initial fix rbg. Before crossing rbg; we were issued a new arrival; the bdega 1; landing west. We were expecting the 28R transition and briefed as such. The intersection corkk separates the arrival for the left and right runways. Just before corkk; ATC issued us to the 28L transition. I; as the pilot monitoring (pm); was very task saturated and started setting us up for the 28L ILS; reviewing charts and loading the approach into the GPS. As we sequenced over corkk the a/P turned for the 28R fix; not 28L as assigned. Not long after the sequence; approach gave us a vector of 140 to sequence us behind traffic from the south. After the navigation correction; and set up for 28L; in the (downwind) vector; we were told to expect 28R again. Once again; we had to change the flight plan in the GPS; look at approach plates and re-brief whilst looking for traffic to follow and receiving further vectors and descents. We eventually landed 28R and taxied in without further incidence. I would say close to 100% of our flight plan arrivals change whilst enroute to RNAV stars when we are able to fly them (navigation database current). So; briefing the filed arrival on the ground before departure is almost counterproductive as we are almost always issued a new one. We always try to brief early before transition altitude and we did. In this case I failed to sequence the GPS to the arrival runway when they changed the runway on us last minute. I was heads down; task saturated; loading the different ILS approach and reviewing approach plates. It wasn't long after the sequence that the controller corrected our navigation deviation and gave us a heading. I don't think ATC ever intended us to land on 28L but just gave us that transition just for flow and get us south. It would have been nice just to get a vector so we could have kept our approaches loaded and pilot tasks less saturated; rather than changing the flight plan and approaches twice in congested airspace.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-505 First Officer reported a track deviation on arrival into SFO when he became task saturated following multiple runway changes.

Narrative: Initial clearance [into SFO] was for the Golden Gate 6 arrival; initial fix RBG. Before crossing RBG; we were issued a new arrival; the BDEGA 1; landing West. We were expecting the 28R transition and briefed as such. The intersection CORKK separates the arrival for the left and right runways. Just before CORKK; ATC issued us to the 28L transition. I; as the Pilot Monitoring (PM); was very task saturated and started setting us up for the 28L ILS; reviewing charts and loading the approach into the GPS. As we sequenced over CORKK the A/P turned for the 28R fix; not 28L as assigned. Not long after the sequence; approach gave us a vector of 140 to sequence us behind traffic from the south. After the navigation correction; and set up for 28L; in the (downwind) vector; we were told to expect 28R again. Once again; we had to change the flight plan in the GPS; look at approach plates and re-brief whilst looking for traffic to follow and receiving further vectors and descents. We eventually landed 28R and taxied in without further incidence. I would say close to 100% of our flight plan arrivals change whilst enroute to RNAV STARS when we are able to fly them (NAV database current). So; briefing the filed arrival on the ground before departure is almost counterproductive as we are almost always issued a new one. We always try to brief early before transition altitude and we did. In this case I failed to sequence the GPS to the arrival runway when they changed the runway on us last minute. I was heads down; task saturated; loading the different ILS approach and reviewing approach plates. It wasn't long after the sequence that the controller corrected our navigation deviation and gave us a heading. I don't think ATC ever intended us to land on 28L but just gave us that transition just for flow and get us south. It would have been nice just to get a vector so we could have kept our approaches loaded and pilot tasks less saturated; rather than changing the flight plan and approaches twice in congested airspace.

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.