And yeah, the 182 will tolerate a fair amount of inattention...as long as you don't get too slow in the flare and drop it on the nosewheel...which I've managed to avoid so far!
I'm a little worried about this comment, as I've seen it a couple of times now from you and it's not really accurate for the 182, IMHO.
It's actually pretty hard to do any dropping on the nosewheel when you're too slow with a real flare going on (assuming the hamfisted pilot did flare at all), what really happens is that configuration usually results with a "solid" three point "arrival".
To drop on the nosewheel you'd have to stall the elevator, and it's really hard to do that. You'd have to be all the way forward with the CG, and violent about it.
If you talk to the folks who've bent firewalls, it's almost always a porpoise or pilot-induced-oscillation in pitch, that tags the nosewheel hard enough to break things. They're essentially flying the nosewheel into the runway with speed and lots of energy. They're not too slow.
If you have that yoke back and try to make the mains touch first, as all us nose-dragger pilots should, and that yoke is back in your lap, if you're too slow in a 182, you'll "arrive" hard, all at once, and that's usually not going to be a nosegear and firewall busting event. At least some of the shock will be eaten up by simultaneously abusing all three wheels and the airframe. Flare ten feet in the air and drop on like that, with the yoke full back, sure... you'll break all sorts of stuff. Heh. No argument there. Should have shoved in the power sooner.
But, for relatively normal flare heights, arriving too FAST is usually what triggers the pitch oscillations from a PIO in a 182, as tehy try to flare without flying ("ballooning") back up. Often caused by people trying to land them at 172 speeds which are FASTER, which surprises a lot of new 182 pilots when they transition. (Vso is lower on the 182. That's a big wing with big flaps.)
Over the fence at 65 is almost too fast. That's okay if you're slowing, but a solid 65 is going to be a long flare that'll take some finesse to bleed the speed off, and a lot of float. Let her slow up a bit. Just be ready for the speed decrease to increase drag and sink rate.
Too slow, if you're really flying it, you can arrest the high sink rate that develops from the speed reduction with a judicious blast of power from that lovely 230 HP beast hanging there on the engine mounts in front of you, if you have to.
Too fast, if it bounces, same thing, but it's a go-around... don't let it become a porpoise by pushing the elevator forward. Once it's back, keep it back. Don't screw around and try to fix a bounced landing on anything other than a runway where you can chew up at least an extra 1000' or more setting it back down.
And what you're really doing is adding lots of power to transition to full-flap level slow flight and then flaring and reducing power for a normal mains-first landing, when you "rescue" a bounced landing in the 182. It takes a lot of time and disaptance.
It's best to ingrain the technique to just fly away and come around and do it again at first. Save the heroics for a day when you've got a mile of runway left and you make a conscious decision to "re-land" after powering up and flying again, even if its just enough power to hold level flight with the flaps hanging out.
I disagree that it's "too slow" that gets you into nosegear trouble in a 182. It's "no flare" and often "too fast" with a PIO that breaks things. More energy, more destructive power.
Too slow, if you flare at the right time or even a couple of feet high, just get the darn yoke back in your lap and keep it there and it'll "plant" on all three gear simultaneously. Not nice on the nose strut, but it'll survive.
One caveat... If the nose strut isn't properly serviced and is weak, it'll compress too fast and bottom out on the upstroke and that will jar you and the strut mount pretty good. You'll hear a huge clunk at the bottom and cringe. Usually such a bad nose strut will give plenty of warning and be doing that under the weight of the engine during taxi-out ling before you need to launch or land on it. Turn around and take the airplane back to the shop if its bottoming out taxiing and get it serviced. Flight's over.
You've probably done the "fly a foot off the runway the length of the runway" practice technique with your CFI. Talk with them about setting up a 70 knot over the fence speed or even 75 with full flap and attempting a landing out of it (be on a hair trigger to go around) on a really long runway, and see how long it takes, and how touchy in pitch the airplane is at the round out and flare. It'll want to go back up, bad. Don't let it.
Tiny pulls of elevator flying a couple of feet above the runway and don't let it land, until the speed bleeds down... just don't let it land... If you keep pulling on the elevator and refusing to let it touch down, the nose will keep rising to try to block your view of true remaining runway) and the mains will eventually touch down. Don't relax the elevator at touch down either. Common mistake. You're not done flying yet. (That'll slam the nosegear down, and give the strut a workout.) When the mains touch, keep coming back until you run out of elevator. Just keep playing that mental "don't let the nosegear land" game.
Being too slow in the 182 is fixable. Being too fast will almost always lead to PIO for newer 182 pilots. That PIO gets out of hand, it'll be what really crunches the firewall via the nosegear.
