Narrative:

I left the airport with clearance for a southwest departure. Upon reaching 800 feet; I started a turn to a 240 heading; climbing to 3;000 feet. As I turned to a heading of 240; the glare from the setting sun was directly in our face and I turned to a heading of 210 to allow for better vision. Approximately 10 miles southwest of the airport I picked up traffic on our screen; same altitude and appeared to be approaching head on. Because of the sun glare; I could not visually identify the traffic and continued searching. On the screen; the traffic appeared to be 2 miles out; same altitude and heading directly toward me. At 2 miles; my passenger identified the oncoming traffic and it appeared to not see us. The approaching traffic appeared to be slightly to my right and slightly above us. Given the speed of the approaching aircraft and my perception that it was not taking any action; I chose to break collision avoidance protocol and I turned left and began losing altitude quickly.the approaching pilot contacted tower and indicated they never saw us on their screen and was complaining that I was in his space and did not move. I moved as soon as I visually identified the traffic and I broke from collision avoidance procedures because; in my opinion; a standard turn to the right would be far worse and potentially increase the likelihood of a mid-air collision. Tower confirmed that both pilots were VFR. I do not have the call sign of the other aircraft and I quickly informed ATC that we took action as soon as we visually identified the traffic and observed that the approaching aircraft was not taking any corrective action; indicating they did not see us.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Separate aircraft pilots reported a loss of visual contact due to environmental conditions resulting in a NMAC.

Narrative: I left the airport with clearance for a southwest departure. Upon reaching 800 feet; I started a turn to a 240 heading; climbing to 3;000 feet. As I turned to a heading of 240; the glare from the setting sun was directly in our face and I turned to a heading of 210 to allow for better vision. Approximately 10 miles southwest of the airport I picked up traffic on our screen; same altitude and appeared to be approaching head on. Because of the sun glare; I could not visually identify the traffic and continued searching. On the screen; the traffic appeared to be 2 miles out; same altitude and heading directly toward me. At 2 miles; my passenger identified the oncoming traffic and it appeared to not see us. The approaching traffic appeared to be slightly to my right and slightly above us. Given the speed of the approaching aircraft and my perception that it was not taking any action; I chose to break collision avoidance protocol and I turned left and began losing altitude quickly.The approaching pilot contacted Tower and indicated they never saw us on their screen and was complaining that I was in his space and did not move. I moved as soon as I visually identified the traffic and I broke from collision avoidance procedures because; in my opinion; a standard turn to the right would be far worse and potentially increase the likelihood of a mid-air collision. Tower confirmed that both pilots were VFR. I do not have the call sign of the other aircraft and I quickly informed ATC that we took action as soon as we visually identified the traffic and observed that the approaching aircraft was not taking any corrective action; indicating they did not see us.

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.