"Jay Honeck" wrote in message

I have always found it difficult-to-impossible to determine an aircraft's
direction of flight by viewing those itty-bitty green and red lights.

That's a bit disconcerting, Jay. Maybe a night/color vision check is in
order; and perhaps a sit-down with someone who knows how to look at things
at night, and review with you the patterns and what they might mean.

You ought to be able to see small aircraft nav lights at about five or six
miles, I would guess. At that distance, even if head on in a pair of light
twins, you'd still have about a minute, or perhaps a bit less, to recognize
and respond. That's a fairly long time.