@ReverseBucket: Didn't take long at all to get to. Obviously it was longer than half an hour but I'm just talking about the drive to where it got scenic.
It's exactly a year to the day I started flying in Chandler. What I'd do to go back...
The heat can be bad (even in April/May). I found once you got up the air it was fine. The hardest thing about the temperature was that it would be so quite cold at 10/11,000ft and 35/40 degrees on the ground. You'd have to wear a jumper starting out and leave the door hanging open on taxi to be in any way comfortable.
Rbucket is right about the traffic. There are countless training schools there (a lot of em foreign). Lufthansa even have their own private airfield. I saw everything from fighter jets to USAF 137s (I think) doing circuits. When doing transition over Sky Harbor you'd have commercials landing/taking off under you with A320s/B737s on the approach at same height.
Still, as cautious as you have to be, it was by far the best flying I've done to date. The ATC in the States is second to none.
Btw, Payson has a great cafe!