Pro Pilot... "The crazy part about that, is that I would have never guessed why: The "Captain Mentor" program Pinnacle does leads you to ultimately NEVER upgrade. We have here in Memphis 3 Captain Mentors, 1 in Detroit, and 5 in Minneapolis. The deal is that you have to do "X" number of hours with a Captain "Mentor" in order to qualify for a reduced TT upgrade. You have to BID to fly with them, you can't trade unless you're off of reserve. So then take that into account and the fact that you have to do ALL 100+ hours in less than 60 days. It's literally impossible."

Propilot I am one of the MEM mentors. I think we have more than 3 in mem. There were aboout 7 in my class in Jan.
Why are there so few mentors?
1. No additional pay but additional reponsibility.
2. Not alot of communication about the program.
3. The reason our FSDO stopped accepting CFI recertification just for being a 121 CA....too many 9E captains told them "they dont pay me to teach". Yet you want to renew your cfi based on you not having a teaching attitude???
4. This is the big one. A large number of FO's in the mentor program had this attitude that they deserved to be in it, and the CA should have to fly around the FO schedule, not the other way around. I for one am NOT going to give up 8 years of seniority and my valuable family life so I can help you build a bigger paycheck quicker. That why many of the Mentors quit when it was strongly suggested that we should have to bid the FO's line cause FO's were complaining they werent senior enough to bid with a mentor.
5. Only one FO I have flown with has even said "thank you." Damn at least buy me a beer for helping you out!
6. Many FO's dont realize you aren't just flying with a mentor, YOU WILL BE TESTED BY HIM. You will look stuff up in the FOM/CFM. No more USA today.