I have a gtx330 in my cessna too.

It's a marvelous device which includes direction of flight information.

Way better than nothing when it's working.

It's the most effective advertisement for active tcad there is.

 

episode 1:  I'm flying from Sacramento to Palo Alto just at the end of the tis "dead zone" and up shows this target at 10 O'clock.  I look over and there's this mooney speeding right into me.  I dive.  The target disappears from the screen off my 4 O'clock.   I guess I was just lucky that day.

episode 2:  crummy marginal vfr day, same location.  Norcal drops me from flight following but I stay on the freq.  As I'm approaching the coastal hills West of Livermore I hear approach calling traffic to some dc-9.   "Cessna 10 O'clock, 2 miles"  and I'm watching the 330 and I see this target cutting along the ridge and he's descending.  I look up and all I see is cloud where he should be.  500 feet higher now, he's still descending.  I'm just below the cloud bases.  I wonder where he is.  If that's him, he should be coming into view at my 12 O'clock.....right......about.....NOW.   and there he is 12 o'clock, same altitude, half a mile.   Passenger windows all lit up.

episode 3:  4 miles out from KPAO, tcad shows climbing traffic, opposite direction.  As we approach each other it appears he's 1 mile at my 1 o'clock 400' low.    I'm thinking about pulling up.   ...but then I see him for real, above me 12:30.   sometimes that little delay matters.