Robert Greig, 57, died when his camouflage-coloured "home built-style" light aircraft crashed into thick bushland near Wollongong about 7.45pm on Tuesday.

His mobile phone helped police pinpoint his location on Wednesday morning after a widescale search by authorities in bad weather conditions.

Mr Greig, from Balgownie, had four decades' experience in flying and had amassed thousands of hours in the air.

He had left Wedderburn Airport, near Campbelltown, and was making his way to Albion Park when he ran into bad weather.

The father-of-two became separated from another plane with which he was flying and crashed in the rugged terrain.

The question of why he and the tandem pilot set out in Tuesday night's "marginal" conditions, remains.

"That's something that will be clearly subject to our investigations, Superintendent Kyle Stewart said.

"It would have been a very complex manoeuvre to have pilots flying in the conditions that they were flying in last night had they not been equipped appropriately to do so, and/or trained appropriately to do so."

He said there was no sign the aircraft had structural problems.

Reeling from the loss of a club member and fellow aviator, Wedderburn Sport Aircraft Club president Bret Cavanagh said Mr Greig's loss would be felt deeply throughout the close-knit community of pilots.

"Robert was widely known and widely liked, it's a club of like-minded friends so he was a friend of everyone at the airfield and we'll all obviously miss him," he said.

He said Mr Greig was a highly experienced and versatile pilot.

"He was in fact a dual licensed pilot. He had a general aviation licence and a Recreational Aviation Australia licence as well," he said.

"He has flown countless different aircraft over a long time; he was a highly competent pilot."

Mr Greig's passion for flying was "irrepressible" and his absence from the club would be noticed by all, Mr Cavanagh said.

Recreational Aviation Australia chief executive Michael Linke confirmed Mr Greig was flying an amateur built aircraft.

He said the RAA administered more than 3200 aircraft and had more than 10,000 members.

"One of the privileges of being a member of Recreational Aviation Australia includes the freedom to design and build your own aircraft. These amateur built aircraft comprise about a third of our fleet and are used for recreational private flying only.

"While members are free to build their own aircraft, there are processes of oversight to ensure safe standards are adhered to.

"In 2014 almost 30,000 hours and over 43,000 landings were flown in this category of aircraft across the country.

"All training is conducted in factory built, certified aircraft."

The Illawarra Mercury