Denny wrote:

While that pilot may believe that ATC saved his bacon I have a
different take on it... They held his hand on the radio which is
certainly to their credit (99.9% of controllers are good folks)... But
putting a VFR pilot back into the clouds was not the way to go...

Listen again. The FSS guy said "remain VFR if able" and the pilot said
"climbing to 3000" and later that he was in complete IFR. Seems to me
the pilot made the call to go back up.

-cwk.