Narrative:

I am filling this out more because I am sensing a large proficiency issue in the GA community that is growing due to the introduction of ads/B in the cockpit. Due to a cockpit distraction back at the tie down; I never entered my beacon code in the transponder - I was still squawking 1200. I only realized the mistake when switching to departure. Seconds before that realization; I was also given a heading change. I guess between the heading change; the realization that I needed to punch in my code and the fact that the radios are to my right (supposition on my part) - I started a turn to the right instead of the left and transposed to heading to 030 in my head. That's my guess what got me in to a bad situation - not the issues I mainly want to address. I did have a short discussion with departure as to if I made the wrong turn. It was unclear if I had. Regardless; when I turned; I immediately got a traffic alert. It mentioned traffic less than one mile. It also said something about 'climbing.' at this point I was confused. I didn't know if the traffic was climbing or it was telling me to climb. I remember reading the manual over a year ago; but I could not recall the details. Consequently; I leveled off; searched and found my traffic. No evasive action was warranted. I then continued my climb. When our ads/B unit was installed; I read how there was a traffic alert feature. Until that day; I never got to experience how it worked. I think there is potentially a growing proficiency problem in GA now that we have ads/B - specifically 'TCAS like' traffic alerts. We need to come up with a way for us GA pilots to experience traffic alerts for their kind of ads/B equipment so that we are proficient on our actions and; equally important; not surprised by the alerts.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 pilot reported failure in training to understand ADSB alerts and resolutions.

Narrative: I am filling this out more because I am sensing a large proficiency issue in the GA community that is growing due to the introduction of ADS/B in the cockpit. Due to a cockpit distraction back at the tie down; I never entered my beacon code in the transponder - I was still squawking 1200. I only realized the mistake when switching to departure. Seconds before that realization; I was also given a heading change. I guess between the heading change; the realization that I needed to punch in my code and the fact that the radios are to my right (supposition on my part) - I started a turn to the right instead of the left and transposed to heading to 030 in my head. That's my guess what got me in to a bad situation - not the issues I mainly want to address. I did have a short discussion with departure as to if I made the wrong turn. It was unclear if I had. Regardless; when I turned; I immediately got a traffic alert. It mentioned traffic less than one mile. It also said something about 'climbing.' At this point I was confused. I didn't know if the traffic was climbing or it was telling me to climb. I remember reading the manual over a year ago; but I could not recall the details. Consequently; I leveled off; searched and found my traffic. No evasive action was warranted. I then continued my climb. When our ADS/B unit was installed; I read how there was a traffic alert feature. Until that day; I never got to experience how it worked. I think there is potentially a growing proficiency problem in GA now that we have ADS/B - specifically 'TCAS like' traffic alerts. We need to come up with a way for us GA pilots to experience traffic alerts for their kind of ADS/B equipment so that we are proficient on our actions and; equally important; not surprised by the alerts.

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.