Aircraft experts will use the accounts of 10 eyewitnesses to help their investigation into a plane crash on the Illawarra escarpment that killed Balgownie father of two Robert Greig.
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Recreational Aviation Australia (RAA) completed the first stage of its investigation on Thursday after combing the crash site and a debris field covering up to 300 square metres of bushland between Bulli Tops and Sublime Point.
The investigators will prepare a report for the coroner using pilot and aircraft log books, GPS data, fuel samples, readings from the aircraft cockpit and the accounts of witnesses to the crash, which happened about 8pm on Monday.
The engine had been sent to an expert for analysis, but mechanical-related causes were looking unlikely when compared to weather-related causes or pilot decision-making, RAA CEO Michael Linke said.
"Of those three, mechanical-related [causes] are the least likely at this stage."
Mr Greig took off from Wedderburn Airport on Tuesday evening in a camouflage-patterned, single-seater light aircraft he had helped to build using components of a Conroy Sparrow plane.
Wedderburn Sport Aircraft Club president Bret Cavanagh said a pilot who departed the airport in company with Mr Greig, in a separate plane, flew in circles looking for his friend when the pair lost communication mid-air.
"Once he had lost radio communications, then he knew something serious had happened," Mr Cavanagh said.
"He has lost a close friend and is very upset."
In the aftermath of the crash, talk among aviation enthusiasts turned to why Mr Greig, a pilot with four decades' experience chose to fly in rainy, foggy conditions described by authorities as "marginal, at best".
Mr Cavanagh said the conditions at Wedderburn, south of Campbelltown, may have been different to those encountered later on the Illawarra escarpment.
"Wedderburn is on a relatively high piece of ground so it gets different weather to other places around. Because I wasn't there to see it, I honestly don't know what was going on at that time ... but conditions can change.
"The other pilot ... was also a very experienced pilot and if they decided that it was OK to be flying, then I think it was probably OK to be flying in the vicinity of the airfield."
The plane Mr Greig flew resembled a Pilatus aircraft.
Among the Wedderburn community, he had taken to calling it a "Pilatapuss".
"That was Robert's sense of humour," Mr Cavanagh said.
