TCAS
I think I agree with Fox.
The point of TCAS is actually to eliminate the need for the pilot to think, as crazy as that sounds. With some of the closure rates involved, waiting to figure it all out could kill me.
If you talk to a controller, as I was doing on the blog yesterday about this topic though, they often hate TCAS because it takes them out of the control loop.
The case you mentioned Beer would be possible for sure, but pretty far out. Usually, I see a target long before it even becomes a TA, let alone an RA. So the chance of the alert being someone other than what's on the TCAS are slim, if I understood your point.
But to me, if some other plane got totally past my scan and the system is yelling at me to "Climb, Climb," I'd climb first and think later.
Again though, if I saw it visually, the equation changes.
Jetwhine