Date: 201402
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: STS.Airport, CA
Flight conditions: VMC
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: Cheetah; Tiger; Traveler AA5 Series
Operator: Personal
Operating under: Part 91
Flight plan: VFR
Mission: Personal
Flight phase: Initial Approach
Airspace: Class E NCT
ATC / advisory: Tower STS
Second aircraft: M-20 Series Undifferentiated or Other Model
Reporter organization: Personal
Reporter function: Pilot Flying; Single Pilot
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Private
Human factors: Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Conflict NMAC
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Contributing factors: Environment - Non Weather Related; Airspace Structure; Procedure
Primary problem: Ambiguous

Narrative: [I] was on flight following with NorCal Approach heading into STS NorCal held me a little longer than expected. I tried to prompt a hand off to the Tower by calling STS in sight at 15 miles out. The Controller told me to stick with him for a little longer. He dumped me to STS Tower about 7 miles out and I made my initial call. This call went unanswered and it quickly became apparent that the Controller working the Tower had lost control of things. I elected to start a 360 orbit just outside the airspace I could not get a response after my second call. At this time I could hear the Controller calling to aircraft for example would the Cessna on right downwind for [Runway] 32 who are you? I could also hear another pilot stating there were downwind on Runway 14 nervously asking if he was still cleared to land [Runway] 14; these calls prompting no response from the Controller. During this time I decided to set up better for an entry to the pattern as the Controller was clearly [in need of] help from those of us in the air. I elected to continue my decent to below 3;000 FT and travel north outside the Class Delta to a location where I would be on a 45 entry for the downwind of [Runway] 32. As I was working to maintain a state of clear of the Class Delta airspace and checking my barring to the airport I was clearly a bit too heads down. I looked up to see a Mooney on a direct collision course. I took evasive action to avoid a head on collision and watched the Mooney pass of my right wing. The Mooney never altered path or took action so my assumption is that they never saw me. I switched back to NorCal Approach and requested flight following again until the STS Controller could get put back together. They gave me a discreet code and I started monitoring the STS Tower again on COM2. By this time another person had taken over and clearly knew what he was doing. Got things sorted and then started working the list of folks waiting outside the Class Delta by this time maybe 4 planes orbiting outside the Class Delta. I responded to the Tower call for the aircraft waiting outside the Class Delta and was told to clear my transponder code back to 1200 and enter the Class Delta. I let NorCal know and had a safe and sane pattern and landing.




Synopsis: A pilot reported a near miss while orbiting outside of STS Class D airspace as he awaited clearance into the congested airspace.