John,
To answer your question we tend to use real world weather updated all the time, barring any real bad weather that may prevent us from flying. We do use FShost, BUT we do not use it to enforce real world weather all the time, so theoretically you can run whatever weather you feel comfortable with..

As far as time of day goes, I usually tend to run real world time minus about 2-3 hours so as to keep in daylight throughout the whole flight. What's the sense in flying around the USA if you do it all at night?
Again, both of these decisions are really up to the individual pilot, and his/her skills/desires..

Hope this helps, and I'll look forward to meeting up with you again!
Jared