PPL Flying at 2000 ft agl in the cruise ppl looks down to check chart / change radio freq etc etc, looks up and is now IIMC as he has flown up into the layer of cloud
That would be the dumb bit. WTF was he doing hard up against the base? Obviously poorly trained. At least with a 2000' base he may be able to recover when he falls out of it upside down after about 45 seconds.
Fly halfway between the base and the surface - when the surface gets too close and you cant go back land on it and live.
The fallacy of giving a student 5 hours under the hood is delusional and I would like to meet the idiots that came up with that one. Never understood it.
Treat cloud/fog the same as rock because invariably that is what is inside it by the time you have got this far. Where is the procedure for doing 180 after you have hit a rock?