23-year-old Live Oak graduate was practicing in Greenfield for
season when plane went down
San Martin – Nicholas Nilmeyer was 16 when he spent a week camping alone at an air show watching the best of the best. He would later join them in 2003 as the youngest member of the Stars of Tomorrow team, performing nationwide and thrilling audiences with his aerobatics flying and youthful style.
Nilmeyer, 23, was killed Tuesday morning while practicing for the start of his air show season next month when his single engine plane crashed 20 feet from a runway at a private air strip in Greenfield.
According to Monterey County Sheriff’s officials, he was practicing at the ranch of Wayne Handley, a world class aerobatics pilot and air show performer, when he crashed about 10:35am.
Nilmeyer’s plane, an Extra 300S, sustained significant damage upon impact. Good Samaritans extricated him from the wreckage and attempted to perform CPR. He was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency personnel.
No one saw the plane go down, however, some witnesses heard the plane practicing for 20 to 30 minutes before the crash, said Sgt. John Pellerin.
“They were watching and watching and then they didn’t see him anymore and they thought something was wrong,” he said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. Calls to both agencies were not returned by press time.
Nilmeyer broke into the world of aviation at a young age – by 17 he obtained his private pilot’s license, and at 20 he had his commercial license.
“We were proud of him and I would love for people to know that,” his mother Cindy said Wednesday from her San Martin home.
He graduated from Live Oak High School in 2001 and later attended Santa Monica Junior College.
According to friend and fellow pilot Karl Koeppen, Nilmeyer made a name for himself at a young age in a field of primarily older pilots.
“Nick sort of reinvented the mold,” he said. “Here was this young guy, he was snowboarder, he loved to skateboard. Some of the older guys were like what? He brought this snowboarding, X-Game mentality. As far as the young up and comers, he was one of the best.”
Flying was in his blood. Both his father and grandfather were pilots.
But flying was also his passion, Koeppen said.
“For him, I think it was an art form,” he said. “He said he was a lousy dancer, a terrible singer, but it gave him a way to create … To do art in the sky. He was an innovator in the air, bringing a lot of his young personality to the sky.”
Nilmeyer trained in Greenfield and lived with his parents in San Martin and in Los Angeles with friends.
The always smiling young man would give talks to a young pilots group he was once part of called the EEA Young Eagles.
Koeppen believes young pilots will learn from the accident.
“This was kind of our spiritual leader, if you will,” he said.” I think that people will be able to learn from whatever happened yesterday … He may have been young but he had a lot of experience. I think it gives everybody a chance to step back and say this is dangerous, dangerous stuff. If it could happen to Nick, it could happen to us.”
Nilmeyer is survived by his parents Cindy and Dave, and younger siblings Gary and Courtney, all of San Martin.
Memorial services will be held at 1pm, Saturday at 745 Mountain Home Road, Woodside.
“I think we’re all going to remember Nick as having a huge energy for life,” Koeppen said. “He was one of the first young guys to really go in there and make a name of himself.”
