I’ve got a Garmin GNS 530, currently still non-WAAS, and would like to have traffic information displayed there.
I know it will probably not be ALL traffic, but it would be a start ?
Any ideas ?
Install a simple TAS system – Avidyne TAS605, Garmin GTS800, Honeywell KTA870 or L3 SKY497 Skywatch. Any of these will display bearing and distance from all transponder-equipped aircraft. Assuming the target sends altitude it as well, then you will get the relative altitude and vertical trend displayed.
…but if I were doing it now, I would get a Garmin GTX345 transponder as well, and get ADS-B in traffic as well.
I had an active TAS system installed a few years ago – report here
This is the best system because transponders are by far the most widely used “position reporting” device, despite a large % of GA not using them for various reasons.
Everything else in this “electronic conspicuity” game is so fragmented that almost nobody uses it – despite some “massive community support” on some forums.
The main drawback is that it is not cheap… I think this was the cheapest option but there seem to be very few installations.
Peter wrote:
Everything else in this “electronic conspicuity” game is so fragmented that almost nobody uses it – despite some “massive community support” on some forums.
I might be bribed by Flarm (as everybody else who speaks up in favor of it) but where I live, the biggest danger to piston aircraft come from gliders. There are many more gliders than powered aircraft in this region. Being able to receive Flarm signals does much more to my safety than an active traffic system. Also given that there is complete radar/SSR coverage in my area, a passive Mode C listener like PowerFlarm picks up pretty much everything. Not with a precise location but it helps. Count the number of Flarm boxes sold and count the number of TAS boxes sold to GA and it should be an order of magnitude more. Not a fair comparison because TAS does not need the sender to have TAS (Mode C is enough) but it should put things into perspective.
That now qualifies as “massive community support” and I am probably “almost nobody”.
FWIW I flew with a Flarm receiver for months around the UK and didn’t pick up a single target. Also the UK has zero (or near zero) glider-powered midairs, despite having lots of GA and lots of gliding. So this is situation dependent. Does Germany (or any other country) have a lot of such midairs? Euroflyer’s profile does not show his country.
On the topic, I am sure that if you can feed Flarm or any other uncertified conspicuity device into the GNS530 (or any other panel mount GPS/MFD type of device) then lots of people would be interested.
Achim, I totally agree regarding the Flarm, I have one installed. It does help with the gliders (not all of them, but in a flock usually one has it). But apart from gliders, I have to rely on FIS / ATC to tell me what’s going on. I.e. VFR, on a nice, sunny day, over the northern islands, it regularly does not – ‘no traffic information possible’. And IFR, I recently had the pleasure to have VFR flight scratching the cloudbase with its tail, when we broke through the soup from above on a training flight. No traffic information before. I just thought that maybe there’d be an additional source that could give me a warning apart from the Flarm.
Not talking about i.e. Italy, France….
P.S. I am flying in Germany….
Peter wrote:
I flew with a Flarm receiver for months around the UK and didn’t pick up a single target.
Probably something wrong with your setup. From what I heard, Flarm is also standard equipment for gliders in the UK. In some countries, it is even legally prescribed.
Peter wrote:
Does Germany (or any other country) have a lot of such midairs? Euroflyer’s profile does not show his country.
Euroflyer is in Bavaria so not quite Germany. Gliders are a big danger to small GA under IFR because of cloud breaking. They tend to loiter directly underneath clouds, I once counted 8 gliders under one cloud. They are all white and they are not known to ATC. Virtually all airprox situations I have had were with gliders. Flarm works extremely well for that and they use Flarm themselves to coordinate their activities underneath a cloud.
The value of PowerFlarm to my flying is massive. Even with TAS, I would still get Flarm.
Peter wrote:
On the topic, I am sure that if you can feed Flarm or any other uncertified conspicuity device into the GNS530 (or any other panel mount GPS/MFD type of device) then lots of people would be interested.
I feed PowerFLARM into my yoke mounted GPSMAP 695. As good as anything in the center stack.
achimha wrote:
Euroflyer is in Bavaria so not quite Germany.
not quite… I am a Bavarian, but my home airport is EDLN, Monchengladbach, close to Dusseldorf. That’s why I know the situation over the Islands. Most Bavarians never bother to fly so far up north 
Can you connect Flarm to a GNS530?
