Setting down on water requires a last minute abrupt flaring, so the plane actually stalls just above the water and drops onto the surface. An abrupt stopping will be felt as soon as the landing gear touches water (on a Cessna 182, keep the landing gear UP). As soon as the aircraft stops, release all restraing belts and open the doors to get out of the airframe. Most aircraft will sink up to the wings and will then float (IF the Wings are intact). The survivors can then either hang onto the wings or possibly climb on top of the wings until help arrives.
You will will find an excellent recitation of a water landing with wheels down in Ted Lawson's "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo".
Not exactly... Not sure where this information comes from, perhaps from that book? but in any case... A ditching is conducted in essentially the exactly same manner as a normal landing. No "abrupt flare," flare as normal unless the water is perfectly smooth, and you never want to stall the aircraft as height above water is difficult or impossible to judge. A stall will drop the nose and guarantee the aircraft will flip, which is not ideal. If the water is perfectly smooth like glass, you have to simply set up with a nose up attitude and fly it onto the water, no flare.
Unless it is a rare 182RG, the gear is fixed. If it were retractable, that is good advice.
Care should be taken to release restraints only after you have opened the door and/or have a hand on something else so as to maintain situational awareness. In a high wing aircraft such as a Cessna 182, you are almost certainly going to have to wait for water to enter to equalize the pressure in order to open the door unless you are small enough to be able to squeeze out the side windows (or windshield if it caved in).
Most single engine aircraft aircraft sink like a rock. Low wing aircraft tend to do better in this regard, especially if you climb onto the tail to counterbalance the engine weight. Twins do much better in general, being both low wing for the most part and with the CG more centered with the engines on the wing.
Relying on information from WWII may not always be the best idea for today's pilots. More information on ditching techniques can be found at:
http://www.equipped.org/ditch.htm
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