Have a chat with Westwind Aviation at Deer Valley (just north of Sky Harbour). Having relatives in Phoenix, I chose to go out there for hour building with a mate and Westwind were nothing but professional, straight up, helpful with brilliant staff and especially rates on aircraft (we paid $99 per hour wet if I remember rightly) that were reliable and well maintained. Infact, they even made sure that any routine work was carried out overnight so that out flying programme wasn't affected. I took N54715, a C172 which is no spring chicken but served me very well. It was owned by one of the in house engineers so was extremely well looked after. My mate took another, much newer C172 out which was very up to date in terms of equipment.
Can't recommend Phoenix highly enough, especially Deer Valley. Those 4 weeks gave us very fond memories and in fact 6 years on both of us that went out there are now flying big Boeings but would give our right nut for another lads trip with a couple of 172's around the West Coast.
Good luck and enjoy!
PS just a few quick tips...
- Fly over to North Las Vegas and do a night out.
- Lake Havasu has cheap fuel and a nice town for lunch
- LAX VFR Corridor from San Diego up to Santa Barbara is amazing
- Just to the south west of Sky Harbour is some high ground. The other side of that high ground is heading towards Luke Airforce Base and you'll be talking to Luke Approach. Go and fly around for a bit just west of the high ground and you'll find a few F15's will come and play with you!
Sorry for rabbiting on but it's the best lads trip I've ever done.
Loads of flying, loads of beer and loads of fun!