Being in cloud is not necessarily a 178 second lead time on a death sentence. You can survive even without an attitude reference, if you have a bearing pointer that can point at an (GPS or NDB derived) object in space in-front of you fly towards (or away from) it. Don't change the power, or make only very small adjustments in power, and make very small changes with cyclic. Watch the VSI/ASI, keeping it within a few knots or few hundred FPM of target (BROC speed is good). Granted, if your equipment has a suitable bearing pointer it probably also has an attitude reference. But in any event, it can be done without an AI. If the cloud isn't convective i.e. not turbulent, you can fly like that under complete control, without any gyroscopic instruments. However, and this is the key point, it's no reason to knowingly enter cloud thinking that you can actually do this, I'm talking about inadvertent entry here. The difficult part is safely getting out of the cloud. The way to do that with the best chance of surviving is over water, and descending. If you don't have water below you, you need a lot of luck on your side, a mental picture of the terrain, and obviously some ceiling at the bottom to get visual before hitting something.
This is obviously not something you're likely to pull off successfully without some exposure to IIMC training, which should happen during navigation training phase of the basic pilot course. And at each competency check. This is not theoretical preaching, it does actually work, in practice. It has happened to me, twice before. Through some freaky weather event that totally caught me out, that didn't afford me the turn around or land now options. 11,000' descent in cloud in a VFR 206L. Lucky for me I had some open ocean ahead of me, and a 100' of ceiling and good viz to play with at the bottom, and enough fuel to take my time about it.