"Greg Esres" wrote in message
...
neither the FAA nor the AOPA have said that there is a requirement
for the examiner to sign off the check ride as a

The FAA said, via the FAQs:

However, to make sure the applicant gets credit for successful
completion of the Flight Review, the examiner should record that the
§61.56 Flight Review was satisfactorily completed in the applicant's
logbook.



Since when did "should" become "must?"