are you legally allowed to fly a 182 in winds of 39 gusting 49kts?

In the United States (not sure about Canada), your authority as pilot in command allows you to land in any winds you want, as long as you believe it favors the safety of the flight. If you take foolish risks (such as flying outside the manufacturer's recommended envelope) and have or cause an accident, however, the FAA may deem your actions reckless, and therefore illegal. If you land safely, or if you're within the performance limitations and have done nothing obviously stupid, you're legal. If you can show that your actions were the best and safest course of action in your mind, you can do all sorts of things.

Essentially U.S. law gives pilots wide discretion in deciding how they are going to fly, and allows them to do many exceptional things as long as they can justify why they did them, but it also punishes pilots who do foolish things for no good reason. I think Canadian law is similar but I cannot swear to it.

Besides, a wind parallel to the runway is very different from a wind across the runway, so 39 knots from 250 on runway 24 isn't necessarily that wild. The gusting could be a problem, though.

The demonstrated x-wind is 17knots, meaning that this was demonstrated for certifaction by the FAA. This is not a limiation for the aircraft.

Using the runway and wind you gave, the max x-wind is only 8.5Kts at a 49kts gust, so this does not exceed demonstrated x-wind for the aircraft. However your actual ground speed will be very slow, around only 30kts. Taxing would be a different issue, as a gust may be strong enough at 49kts to actually produce enough lift on the wings to lift the aircraft off the ground and possibly leading to being uncontolled and causing damage to the a/c or property around the a/c, as the min rotation speed is 56 for a softfield takoff at max weight, and if the aircraft is less than this, could be enough to make the a/c airborne, and stall or flip backwards

In my youth, I landed a Beech Duchess in winds gusting to 57 knots, and a Twin Otter in winds which, coincidentally, were gusting to 57 knots. As a young pilot (16-17) I trained (dual) in winter winds in the Northeast with gusts to 35 knots or more, in PA-28 aircraft. Those winds present more of a problem in high/rough terrain areas, like out west. The above experiences were in the midwest and the northeast.

As for legality, if you took off or landed in winds which significantly exceeded the max demonstrated crosswind component and had a problem, the FAA might consider a careless and reckless charge.

There are no regulations dictating what's legal for winds as long as they are within the required performance parameters (i.e. don't land on a 3000' runway with 20 kts of tailwind). But if anything bad happens, be it during flight or taxiing operations, the feds will probably nab the pilot under the "careless and reckless operations" clause.

Yes you are. Landing will happen very slow and comfy.

I have unfortunately had the experience of landing a 172 in a 28kt cross wind component. Wind was 35kts. Runway was 120ft wide, I approached on the center line and touched down a wing length from it. One of the scariest landings I have ever done.

It would be work, but sometimes the weather springs a surprise on us. I was coming in for a crosswind landing one day and hit an updraft coming over the ridge of the valley that literally threw me about 1500 feet straight up, like being on an elevator. (student pilot at the time)

Thank God it was an updraft and not a downdraft. The tower requested that the pilot using bad language on the radio identify themselves.

I yelled "holy sh*t" while talking to the tower - they knew it was me and were yanking my chain ...

We cant always predict perfect landing conditions when we take off. A good option would be to think of diverting if you feel its marginal or iffy IMO

it would be a very slow comfortable landing if it was a straight on headwind. taxing would be crazy though.

aviation rules all state after them that .... unless pilot in charge decides otherwise.

the pilot probably made a bad decision earlier on in the flight or missed an updated weather report and therefore decided he needed to get down as soon as he hit these conditions.

i hope others had their planes tied down good as if they were into the wind they could possible start lifting.

Legality with flying regards to weather (visibility, clouds, etc.), maintenance on the aircraft, and other things but specific to winds there are none. Cessna publishes maximum demonstrated x-winds, but that's only say the max wind speed the aircraft has been tested with. This is not a limitation, but with the winds stated above it looks a Cessna wouldn't be able to do much...

it would be a very slow comfortable landing if it was a straight on headwind. taxing would be crazy though.

aviation rules all state after them that .... unless pilot in charge decides otherwise.

the pilot probably made a bad decision earlier on in the flight or missed an updated weather report and therefore decided he needed to get down as soon as he hit these conditions.

i hope others had their planes tied down good as if they were into the wind they could possible start lifting.

Well crosswind is actually the biggest problem... technically the plance could fly.. if your a pilot you would know the basic principals of takeoff/landing distances and how it is affected by the headwind.