Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 24; Flight Crew Total 6000; Flight Crew Type 5500
Distraction; Physiological - Other; Confusion
Conflict NMAC
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Environment - Non Weather Related
Entering the traffic pattern for the airport I turned to enter final which positioned my aircraft directly into an extremely bright setting sun.  The sun then blinded me at that point and I lost visual contact with the airport and runway and altitude information.  After regaining sight from the sun and while establishing my position along with altitude in relation to the airport and runway I observed another aircraft that appeared to be flying in the opposite direction about 200 feet away.  I then took an evasive maneuver and cleared the traffic.  At that point I was no longer in position to continue the landing and I executed a VFR go around and re entered the traffic pattern and landed without further incident.  What caused this incident was turning on final directly into the extremely bright setting sun which blinded me. To prevent this from happening again I will use a runway if available that is not in line of sight with the sun or fly to an alternative airport without conflict with the setting sun or wait until sunset.
A pilot reported after turning onto final at a non towered airport they were temporarily blinded by direct sunlight and had a NMAC with opposite direction traffic.