The mystery of a missing pilot and aircraft near Georgian Bay took a troubling turn today: several pieces of the man's small Cessna plane have been recovered.

But there is still no sign of its pilot.

Helicopters and ATVs scoured the water and the beaches in Tiny Township hoping more clues might come ashore.

“The lone occupant and pilot of the plane is 64-year-old Wilfred Burnside of Owen Sound and currently he is a missing person,” says OPP Const. David Hobson.

The plane was flying from Cornwall to Owen Sound and failed to check in Thursday night. People who live here say the weather that evening was particularly rough.

“It was dark at the time and we had a lot of freezing rain pellets and wind gusts very strong gusts and it was just the type of evening that you sure wouldn't want to be outside,” says James Lowe, a Tiny Township resident.

Peter Beacock, a Wyevale resident, adds, “At this time of year and in the fall especially, late and the kind of weather, you wouldn't expect to see too many planes flying over Georgian Bay.”

The pilot, Wilfred Oscar Burnside, is a realtor and a retired school principal from Owen Sound.  His family tells CTV News he is well known in the Owen Sound and Meaford communities. They say he is a very experienced pilot and was on his way back from a trip to Vermont.

Today police confirm a number of pieces of the aircraft and some of Burnside's personal belongings have been found. 

“Metal parts of a Cessna 182 aircraft here are metal affects and some personal affects that we are slowly locating as they come ashore,” Hobson says.

Lowe says he came across some of the debris.

“I walk my dog daily up and down the beach and I did find that there are lots of pieces of plastic,” he says. “There was a PSI air hose and there was something that had ‘sky’ on it – it looked like a piece of the dash – and just generally lots of pieces of plastic here and there.”

Today's developments mean military search and rescue crews are no longer involved.  It's now in the hands of the OPP.

“We are doing a shoreline search with ATVs and officers on foot,” Hobson says.

That foot search has now been narrowed down. Officers are focusing on the shoreline between the 4th and 8th Concessions of Tiny Township.

Police say that land search – and the one they've been doing in the air – will continue tomorrow, as long as the weather cooperates. The Transportation Safety Board in Ottawa has been notified.