Outback Steakhouse

[rwelch]

Does anyone have any info on their flight department in TPA?
# of aircraft and type?
# of pilots?
Hiring?
Mins?

 

[Humblepilot]

The Chief Pilot at Outback has according to a friend's conversation with him a stack of resumes, I think mine is somewhere there in the middle. The use to operate Westwinds not quite sure if they have added (thought I heard a rumor about a Hawker). In addition there is Walkabout Air, a charter company owned I believe by the two principals in the Outback which operate a King Air 300 and a Citation II.

Perhaps with a 1000 hrs and some persistance you can get in the stack. PM if you have any more questions.

Humble

 

[flydog]

I have a close friend who lives next door to the Chief Pilot. That along with 1500 hrs and a Westwind type rating didnt get me anywhere. They recently added a Falcon and I heard some of the Westwinds were going away but the last time I was at Simuflite they had a coupe of guys there for Westwind recurrent. When I applied they were hiring to replace the pilots they upgraded to the Falcon.

Southern Air Systems in Tampa also used to operate some Westwinds for Outback.

I dont know anything about a Hawker but the Falcon would have given them the larger cabin size for the same DOC of a Hawker.

 

[Ty Webb]

Outback is one of the better operators in the Tampa job market, which is reltively small. Don't mean to sound harsh, but 1000 isn't even close to what it would normally take to work there. For a Westwind SIC, try more like 2500+ with some pretty substantial jet SIC time or turboprop PIC time.

Tampa has always had enough pilots willing to move there and be "paid in sunshine", so there is no shortage of pilots there. Even in the best of times, 1500-2000 hrs was pretty much the bottom for a decent SIC position in a jet that required 2 crew in the TPA area.

I would say that in this job market, 1000 hrs is, if you're really persistent and really lucky, maybe enough to get on with one of the bottom-feeder air ambulance companies or other 135 operators at TPA or PIE, but only if you have 100 hrs jet SIC from somewhere else . . . . most of the crappy operators don't even want to spend the 5-10 hrs it would take to get you up to speed for a minimal 135 SIC check. Then they pay you by the day, and only when you fly.

Good luck, been there, done that, moved on . . . .

 

[rwelch]

Thanks for the great info.