I received my XRS with the Garmin interface cable yesterday and went out to the airport to do a ramp area test in my C182 before an actual flight. When I powered up the XRS without the Garmin 496, it seemed to display the airport traffic fairly accurately. I then connected the Garmin 496, changed the XRS setting to Garmin, and the Garmin 496 interface setting to “TIS In”. The Garmin then showed “Data Available” in the TIS interface status screen. However, I could no longer get traffic alerts.

I realize that switching the XRS to Garmin mode will prevent the XRS from showing traffic on its screen, but I thought instead the Garmin TIS widow would pop up to show the traffic on it. It did not. Could this be because I was on the ground? If so why did the XRS screen show the traffic when not connected to the Garmin?

In order for the Garmin to process any traffic information, it must be moving at 25-30 kts. or greater. Standing on the ground will not allow the Garmin to show traffic.

In addition, you must be zoomed in to an 8 mile or closer zoom range for traffic to be displayed on the moving map. This makes sense since the traffic detection range on the XRX is 6 NM. Zooming out any further will only clutter the traffic close to the center. There is also a limiting setting in the menu setup that will determine how close traffic has to be to be considered, but unless you have changed this, the default setting is fine.

Please note that these filters only apply to traffic displayed on the moving map. Any threatening traffic will generate a pop-up, regardless of what screen you are looking at.