C-182.
Carb Heat:
1- Carb Heat robs the engine of power by providing heated less dense air rather than colder more dense air. Which do you want for takeoff. Other folk have jumped all over this.
2-Carb heat should be used in the advent of carb icing or as a preventative on base and final legs. Read the POH! Carb icing is usualy detected by a slow decrease in RPM/MP. (The actual mental trigger is that you seem to keep having to bump the throttle up to maintain whatever numbers you are keeping. Most of us don't get this picture until we try to "bump" it up one more time and we find that we are at the "stops". At that point, you've pretty much confirmed you are fighting carb ice.)
Cyl Head Temps, the C-182 and cowl flaps:
The C-182 is pretty sensitive to airflow changes. That big ol' Continental just makes that CHT run all over the place. As someone suggested, you would want to target the CHT in the top half of the green range without getting to the orange/red line. The management of this is controlled by your rate of climb/descent and those not quite good enough cowl flaps.
Make sure on takeoff that your cowl flaps are open. You should constantly run a "Charlie-GUMPSS" checklist whenever the airplane changes pitch angle. Charlie-GUMPSS is Cowl flaps, gas, undercarriage, mixtures, props, seat belts, switches. So on takeoff your flow as turning onto the runway is cowl flaps open, fuel on both, green light (if retract), mixture full forward (now if you leaned for taxi), seat belts, windows, lights on.
A PS is here - the Continental loads up on lead fouling if you taxi around with mixture rich. Lean, even at sea level, on the ground and make sure those cowl flaps are open when taxiing.
On climb out, even with the cowl flaps open, the C-182 can show some pretty dramatic CHT temps. Set in your mind to scan the CHT every 500ft while climbing. If you are trending toward the red line, lower the nose! The difference between a 1000fpm climb rate and a 500fpm climb rate in this airplane will change the CHT a long way. If you can keep that needle right about 3/4 deflection, you are doing an excellent job.
As you reach altitude and level off (pitch change) run your C-GUMPSS again. You'll need to close the cowl flaps pretty quickly because the airflow at cruise is so much greater in this airplane and you'll go from red hot to cool pretty fast. (Unless low altitude on a hot summer day).
On descents, and as you make the power and PITCH change, C-GUMPSS and close the cowl flaps. Keep them closed until you land or go-around. However, once you land or go-around, the first move with your hand when you have a free second is to open those cowl flaps again. This engine is the hot and cold leader!
Mixture and leaning:
No different from any other plane other than the tendancy to plug fouling on the ground. If you have an EGT gauge, pull on the mixture (i.e. lean) until "peak" EGT and then enrichen by 25 degrees. This is just about perfect.
If you don't have an EGT, do the old pull it back until you get roughness then add about a quarter inch back in on the mixture control. If you monitor the MP while you are doing this. Set the airplane in cruise at something square like 23 over 23 or 22 over 22. Pull the mixture until you feel the roughness and see a RPM drop. Push the mixture back in until the number on the MP is reset.
Other:
The C-182 is one of the few airplanes where the manufacturer invites you to run the engine "over square". That is you can load this continental by asking the prop to turn slightly faster than the engine RPM. Use the POH.
The neat thing about this flexibility is that you can do some real smooth flying in the 182 without a lot of throttle jockeying. For example, if you have a simple 1000 altitude change to make - you can twist in a turn of prop and the airplane will climb using the higher RPM as a pseudo climb prop. Want to descend, twist out a little prop and the added drag will give you a nice 400 fpm descent. Very cool!
