My personal interpretation of the ANO quote above is that being part of the 'flight crew' means a qualified person who is required as part of the crew to operate the aircraft legally, i.e. if P2 is required, or a navigator etc. Being a passenger and manipulating the controls doesn't make you part of the flight crew.
Besides the fact that my quote was slightly out of date (thanks to Level Attitude for pointing that out) and the wording has been recently changed from "flight crew" to "pilot", your interpretation will have a completely unqualified and untrained person piloting the aircraft from take-off to landing while the (appropriately qualified) PIC just sits in the other seat dozing (not much else you need to do on a non-complex SEP to fly a simple circuit other than operating the primary controls and the throttle).
My interpretation will only allow properly qualified and trained (and current) personnel performing any and all functions required to safely complete the flight.
Guess which interpretation the judge would lean towards (assuming the old wording were still in effect)?
You can only interpret up to a certain point before it all gets too silly.
To those complaining that "this is all too strict, where is aviation going to these days?": the OP was explicitly asking about the legality of this since he got several conflicting opinions on it, so I'm merely (and actually, for a change) directly addressing his question. If you want, you can start your own thread titled "Do you think it's OK to give passengers control of the aircraft even if it might be illegal?"
