Which brings up a question for me. Sounds like you are filing hours in advance of your flight, is there any advantage in doing that? I usually file less than 1/2 hour from just because of the changes mentioned above.
I’ve never filed the day before ever, I don’t think.
Wait. I take that back. I had to use the IFR slot time reservation system to depart Oshkosh once. So the time had to be reserved but not the full plan filed yet.
Otherwise I usually didn’t have time anyway, even if I had planned the route way in advance, I still usually wanted a last look at weather before committing to the flights.
Sometimes filed a couple hours ahead, vast majority filed after arriving at the airport and making sure the airplane looked generally ready to go. Occasionally filed super late like minimum time to file before departure. A bell curve, I suppose.
Those fast ones were usually between places I usually go and weather was just marginal. One of those “why bother messing with this VFR?” kind of last minute decisions. File it and you can just bop around in this silly low scattered stuff or climb above it. Longer trips with more complex weather usually weren’t done last minute.
Just my two cents. Anybody flying something more capable can probably file later if they fly weather all the time and know their ship’s limitations well. Example: FIKI. I’m probably never going to not be a bit nervous around potential icing conditions. Just don’t see enough of it and don’t feel like testing the stories that a 182 will carry a lot more than you think it will. Ha. I know it will. But not going to push that in questionable conditions to accidentally find out.
Just not an area where I have enough experience. Have seen ice on the airframe before, yes. Comfortable with the stuff midwesterners see all winter, not truly. So filing around weather junk like that, probably in no hurry. Ha. I’d rather plan a mountain flight than a Midwestern weather mess with icing hiding in it.
(Of course due to the altitudes involved, my airplane isn’t a great option for mountain IFR either... nope....)
So yeah. Not a ton of super early filing and not a ton of super late either. For whatever it’s worth.