Page 10 - Volume 15 Number 5

Katie estimates the King Air 360 will be flown about 150 to 200 hours a year to meet face to face with customers across North America on a consistent basis. (Credit: Digital Brand)
you haven’t been before,” Spero Stefanopoulos said on the Textron Aviation video.
Stamoules Produce employs anywhere from a few hundred employees to several thousand employees during the peak of harvest. Everyone is based in Mendota, from the employees working in the fields and the distribution facility to those at corporate headquarters.
In the past decade, Stamoules Produce has expanded its legacy crops while also moving toward significantly developing its pistachio business. The family now farms 11,500 acres of pistachios and is beginning the process of building a hullery. Instead of shipping off all
8 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
of its pistachios to wholesalers or to be sold by The Wonderful Company, Stamoules plans to begin marketing its pistachios under its own brand that you’d be able to purchase in a grocery store.
When the family started to talk about purchasing an aircraft, they turned to Katie Stefanopoulos, a 7,500-hour pilot and wife of Dio. She said until now the company has relied mostly on handling relationships over the phone or during meetings at industry gatherings.
Katie’s father was a charter pilot and her mother flew recreationally. Katie earned her pilot’s license as a teenager and intended to pursue
Company pilot Katie Stefanopoulos (center) holds the keys to Stamoules Produce’s new King Air 360 at delivery. Shown here with her husband Dio (right) and brother-in-law Spero, third-generation family who help run the business. (Credit: Digital Brand)
law school after earning an under- graduate degree from University of California-Davis. Instead, she made piloting her career. She’s been a flight instructor and flown cargo, medevac and charter flights, in- cluding about 500 hours in King Air aircraft. She was last a full-time contract pilot before having her son in 2019.
When it came time to decide what aircraft to buy, she narrowed down the field to two options based on the company’s range, cabin size and short runway needs: the Beechcraft King Air 250 and the Pilatus PC-12. They took demo flights and the pilot of the King Air, a friend of Katie’s, mentioned he could also take them up in a King Air 350. The size and feel of the 350’s cabin was an instant hit. They contacted Beechcraft and started working on purchasing a 350 until the company gave them the option of being the launch customer for the King Air 360.
JUNE 2021