Can a MEI CFI give a valid flight review in a plane for which he is not endorsed? A friend of mine is working towards his initial CFI.  I'm helping him work through regulatory, weather, and other knowledge stuff when time permits.  During our most recent ground session he asked me a question that I had never been asked.  Here's the setup...

A CFI with a freshly minted MEI (airplane, land) is asked to conduct a flight review for a customer in the customer's own Cessna 421C, a pressurized piston twin certified to >30,000'.  This CFI has only flown one type of twin (pick a common training twin, doesn't really matter).  He has no time at all in a 421 of any sort or any other twin aside from the trainer in which he trained for his commercial-multi and MEI.  Our MEI is otherwise current in all categories and classes for which he is certified, holds a complex endorsement gained during his commercial training, and holds a First Class with no limitations.

The customer is current in all categories and classes for which he is certified, is within the 24mo flight review window, and has a First Class.  In short, the customer is fully qualified to be PIC for the flight portion of the flight review.

What's obvious:


The five hour rule does not apply since a flight review is not
instruction given for a certificate or rating.
Our MEI cannot act as PIC of the customer's 421C because the MEI is missing a high altitude endorsement and a high performance endorsement even though he is category and class certified for airplane multi land.
A CFI does not need to be PIC, or even hold a medical, in cases where the student/customer is able to act as PIC.
Edit: it's a really bad idea to do fly an aircraft type with which you are not familiar.


The question is this:
Can our fresh MEI give the customer a valid flight review in the customer's 421C?
The flight instructor is limited to give training in the category and class ratings of their pilot and instructor certificates, not by make and model.

Per §61.193 and §61.195 the flight instructor is authorized to train and issue endorsements for a flight review so long she or he holds a pilot certificate and flight instructor certificate with the applicable category and class rating.

Furthermore, per §61.51(e)(3), the flight instructor may log pilot in command flight time for all flight time while serving as the authorized instructor in an operation if the instructor is rated to act as pilot in command of that aircraft.

The instructor is advised according to Advisory Circular: AC 61-98C,  Section 4-2 Paragraph e. Instructor Qualifications:


  Instructors should also consider their own experience and
  qualifications in a given make and model aircraft prior to giving a review in that model... ...To conduct a flight review in a multiengine
  airplane, the instructor must hold an airplane multiengine rating on their pilot and flight
  instructor certificates. For aircraft in which the CFI is not current or with which he or she is not
  familiar, he or she must obtain recent flight experience or sufficient knowledge of aircraft
  limitations, characteristics, and performance before conducting the review. In any case, the CFI
  must observe the rating limitations of § 61.195.


So, yes.  An appropriately rated flight instructor (whether or not they should) is authorized to conduct the flight review.

What's more, even if the instructor is not qualified to act as PIC (e.g. does not have a high-performance training endorsement), that instructor will still log pilot-in-command time as instructor because he or she is appropriately rated to do so.