"Andrew Sarangan" wrote:
You may be correct in theory, but I can't remember the last time I had
to use the red/green orientation to figure out which way the aircraft
was moving. If the lights are moving across your windshield, then you
already know which way the aircraft is moving.

You see two lights at 12 O'Clock. Is the other aircraft moving towards you
or away from you? Would it help if I told you what color the two lights
were?

Maybe it's just that I grew up with boats, where lights tell you a lot. I
can look at a two red lights and two white lights and tell you that it's
tug towing a barge, and the whole thing is moving right to left. A red
light that changes to green (or vice versa) means I've just passed across
the other vessel's centerline. And so on.

On the other hand, I've noticed that people who's first introduction to
position lights was when they started flying tend not to think about them
like that.