Originally Posted by
bose-x
I have no doubt that there was a lot of peer pressure went on, young guy keen to be a commercial pilot, CFI tells him it will all be OK, even arranges for a 'more experienced' pilot to come along to bolster his confidence so thinks it all must be OK because the CFI says so. Off they go, outbound leg is illegal even though with the CFI on board 3 circuits and it would have been legal.
The lack of currency for carrying passengers is probably the least material illegality. You would need to be a sky god to do '3 quick VFR circuits' on a day that from the report seems to have been R28/0400 BKN002.
Having your CFI not comment about decision making (and ride in the plane with you!) when taking off into weather that is unambiguously illegal for a PPL to operate in, is forecast to remain so for the rest of the day, and to do so in a clearly over gross aircraft, with no equipment that would allow you to get back in (i.e. ILS), and 1.3 hours of IMC time is bizarre.