Chris; I have no jet time, plenty of piston operating time in TX/AZ/NM/CA.. For operating cert, I mistakenly thought Airworthiness, and my mistake.
Flight plan. I don't want to put on my tin foil hat for this, but it's been my experience that when operating within about 2-300 miles of the southern border, filing a flight plan is counter-productive. I fly a lot in and around S TX, NM, and AZ. Most of the time, I don't even have a TXP because I don't want to have the feds watching my every move in the air. Again, that's just my conspiracy talking, but trust me - there are plenty of private pilots down here who think as I do. I've had the feds call my destination and ask for my landing time, I've had them call me in the air on guard, and once the narcs decided to call the local sheriff where I was landing in Nowhere NM and ask that they go check that I am on the ground where I said I was. So, I've had it with that spit. If they want to find me, no reason to make it easier.