Small Transport; Low Wing; 2 Recip Eng
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Commercial
Confusion; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence; Inflight Event / Encounter VFR In IMC
Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Procedure; Weather; Human Factors
On a flight from Cold Bay we climbed out of Cold Bay through 450 foot ceilings and broke through the cloud deck at about 2;500 feet all the while on a VFR flight plan (transponder on 1200). At the intended destination we did what I believed to be the GPS approach. We descended from 3;000 through the cloud deck from 2;500 to 500 feet. At 500 feet I could see spots of the ground and water here and there. The pilot leans over and said I didn't see anything did you. Looking at the transponder I see we are still VFR 1200. The GPS mins for the destination are 1;040 and 1¼. We then head back to Cold Bay where the pilot than does a popup to get back into Cold Bay and puts [a code] into the transponder. We do the ILS and the lights pop out at 300 feet (275 minimum for straight in) and he banks left at 300 feet to do the circle to land (560 foot minimum). I can find no special allowance for this any place.
A commercially rated pilot flying as a passenger questioned whether a flight from CDB to another ZAN airport was legal because it was apparently conducted out of IMC; VFR enroute; IMC into the destination with a missed approach then VFR back to the departure airport.