In article , john smith
wrote:

85 KNOTS OVER THE NUMBERS!!!
How far down the runway do you float before the wheels contact?
I would use 65 knots, 70 knots max, over the numbers and throttle fully
closed.
In a straight leg 182(Q/R/S), I try to be at 55 kts over the numbers at
gross (3100 lbs), reducing appropriately for lower weights.

Andrew never said "over" the numbers. He said "descending past" the
numbers, which if you interpret that as "abeam" the numbers, what he
said makes perfect sense. Choosing a power setting for short final is
not very interesting, after all, and the final approach speed is right
there on the checklist. I think it's the rest of the traffic pattern
that he's asking about.

I like to keep my speed down in the pattern so as to fit in nicely with
all the Warriors and Citabrias. I'd think that a C182 RG would fly
about the same as my C182S once the gear is down; if so, a starting
place might be this:

downwind, 90 kts
gear down, flaps 10, 17-18" MP, 2100 RPM

abeam the numbers
reduce power to 13-14" MP

turning base
flaps 20, 80 kts

turning final
flaps 30, 70 kts, mixture/prop

Andrew, a hint that helped me a lot... Once you get the chance to go
work out your power settings for instrument approaches at 90 and 100
kts, you can just use the same configurations and power settings in the
pattern that you would use when flying an approach. After all, flying
downwind is just like flying level at MDA, and that power reduction
abeam the numbers is just the same as initiating a nonprecision descent.
Close enough anyway. No point in memorizing more different procedures
and sets of numbers than necessary.