Bob Gardner wrote:

George, your heart is in the right place...but if you think that someone at
ATC has a pad of ticket forms just ready to write you up, you are sadly
mistaken. I was told by an officer of the controller's union that
controllers are not interested in the certification status of an airplane or
a pilot.

A former Assistant Administrator for Regulations and Certification told me
that it is the pilot who encounters icing conditions and makes no attempt to
escape who would get a violation...but only if that failure resulted in an
accident/incident or required special handling by ATC. No one at a Center
operating position knows if a pilot climbs or descends through a cloud.

This has certainly been my experience also. I recently flew from
Lebanon, NH to ELM on a day with the freezing level around 4,000 and an
MEA of 6,000 across the mountains of southern VT. I picked up some
light rime and requested higher and got between layers. The clouds
again arose to smite me, so I requested higher again and broke out on
top at 10,000. My requests were calm and matter of fact and the
controllers were extremely accomodating. There was never even a hint
that they questioned why I was flying an Arrow on such a day.

Matt