AB,
Well done! (especially the writing part!)
The carb heat is indeed a bit of a pig to operate, i tis a good reason to hear those nice cape leather gloves as they will protect your hands from a lot of the minor gouges and scratches that Chipmunks can leave you with. The carb heat is also not terribly effective, being more of a warm air than a hot air source - it draws from the general ambience inside the engine bay rather than from a proper heat exchanger as in yer average Spamcan.
This means you have to be especially focused on anticipation / prevention rather than cure, as things can take a loooong time to come right if you do pick up a load of carb ice skimming along in classic icing conditions like we have had over the last few days in parts of East Anglia and the East Mids. The "warm rather than hot" philosophy does mean that selecting carb heat gives less of a power drop than on a PA-28 or C152. At one time the RAF, who of course have much longer runways than the rest of us, ran with their Chippies permanently wired into warm air and accepted the slight reduction in performance. But I think it's nice to have the option.
Please post again when you have more to say, it's a delight to read.