when I did my IFR training my instructor would take me into icing multiple times. Was it legal? I didn't know I was just a student. Did I lear valuable lesson on icing? absolutely. I look back on those days and wonder why he would do this but he will always be the best instructor I ever flew with. When we landed our post flight was scraping the leading edge of the wing off. I remeber filing a special VFR durring a snow storm working on pattern work. what a crazy man. The purpose of this was to show his students how icing will change the performance greatly, and it did. It is virtually impossible to fly IFR up north in the winter because you will pick up some level of icing every time in the clouds in the winter.