Take it one step farther and use METAR abbreviations for everything! 
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FA!
Which is much more polite than FU…
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Michael-
I went with Google when editing the flyer, if it’s incorrect, I would be happy to change it.
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Hi Hans,
No, I think you’re exactly correct. I just wanted to point it out since the rest of the country is currently on DST, and somebody not aware of AZ’s peculiarities might have done the otherwise-usual math for the Mountain time zone. (I made a quick edit to my post to hopefully clarify a bit.) Thank you for the excellent flyer; it is saved in my Migration binder in FF.
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We just like to be different 
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PLENTY of FU in SoCal today. Jeepers. I was initially able to get on top of the smoke at 12.5, but the level kept going up to the point that I had to take a detour towards the coast to where it was thinner, then get under it. LA Center and LA Approach were awesome in helping me thread the needle past the Bravo and over to Banning Pass.
Here’s Banning. That’s a smoke layer above the clouds. Yuck.
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This is a little late to help anyone this week, but I thought it was interesting. I’m mostly just documenting it for my own benefit for posterity, as I hope it helps me think through things like this in the future.
Here is my flight path as I flew in KSDL Class Delta airspace (I was on flight following):
As you can see, north of the Class Delta boundary, I had a flight plan that would put me on a really long base leg to turn right for a nice long final.
The controller wasn’t clear at all about why I couldn’t follow that path, and he re-routed me to the one you see above. I was flying essentially a wide left downwind for what I thought was going to be a Runway 03 landing, even though ATIS (and the tower) confirmed runway 21.
I called in to clarify: “Scottsdale tower, Cirrus 24365, just to confirm, you did indicate landing Runway 21, correct?”
“Yes, but I need you to extend on your current path, and turn and maintain the near side of the runway”.
I was super confused, and then realized that he wanted me to fly back the same direction I came in on as a right downwind for runway 21. He had me extend the downwind until he called my base, and then I did it, and came in for a ~ 3 mile final.
I think they had me do that for sequencing and to avoid the East side of the airport due to noise abatement, but I don’t know for sure.
It was just really odd to do it that way, and I haven’t experienced that before in my albeit admittedly short time as a pilot. Anyway, another learning experience for me!
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I didn’t have quite that convoluted of a trajectory, but on initial contact with SDL coming in from sort of the same direction, he told me to turn to a southerly heading so that I could then enter a midfield right downwind for 21. As I rolled out on downwind, he asked for one left 360 for sequencing. As I rolled out of that, he said to extend downwind and he would call base. They had a lot of incoming (and outgoing) jet traffic, so this was all about fitting me in between those guys. No big deal, handled well by the controller. I think the instructions I got were a bit more ordinary and made more sense than the ones it sounds like you got.
I really appreciated the suggestion on the “Notice to Cirrus Pilots” flyer to check out the area in ForeFlight 3D or Google Earth. The airport is not all that easy to spot, but thanks to having done that in advance, I got it in sight in plenty of time. I think somebody (Roger?) mentioned that 360s for spacing were not uncommon, so that was no surprise either.
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I heard LA Center advising VFR traffic between LA and Vegas to consider rerouting via TNP, advising IMC at all altitudes due to smoke at Baker.
I’m not sure where Baker is, but I believe it. An odd day when the LA Basin is less hazy than the surrounding area!
Looks like AM storms on Sun for those departing.
Obviously weather today and Sunday may have nothing in common, but swinging North may help. I’m sure we’ll all be watching…
Already filed!
Leaving eastbound tomorrow morning; sorry to leave early, but I follow Seckler’s Rules and I don’t want to be stuck in SDL trying to get home Sunday.
Everyone has different levels of caution, mine are probably pretty high.
Safe journeys to all Migration attendees.
Very best,
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Weather coming in this PM & tomorrow AM but then dissipates by about 2p.
I got set up with ezwxbrief.com and Scott took a few min in trade show booth to show me how to use + discuss my route tomorrow. Was helpful.
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I bailed out today after lunch. Sorry to miss you all at the banquet. I was looking forward to meeting a few folks that I hadn’t connected with yet!
After the smoke fiasco with the “Windy” fire down in Bakersfield on the way to Scottsdale, I decided to take the alternate path today and so I departed towards Prescott, then over the top of Vegas and up towards Mammoth before crossing the Sierra and descending into the Bay Area. There were a few isolated showers between SDL and LAS, but the clouds were high enough to stay under them with plenty of terrain clearance, and it was easy to avoid the heaviest precip. I got a couple of brief episodes of sprinkles – just enough to turn the dust on the plane into sludge. Things got progressively more hazy up towards Mammoth, and visibility crossing the Sierras was pretty poor. You could make out the mountains well enough, but the smoke/haze was pretty bad, and it continued down into the Central Valley. Sunset in the Bay Area today was blood red.
The smoke has really rolled into NorCal since Thursday, yikes.
Many, many thanks to everyone who helped to organize Migration. This was my first one, and I really enjoyed it. I look forward to many more!
Here’s a shot from near Mammoth that shows both the haze and the “sludge” that the sprinkles wrought!
And in the vicinity of Modesto:
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FYI I’m postponing. Going home tomorrow. Who’s with me? 
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Update. Hotel will extend your room at same rate. They were ready for this. Really impressed. Really really impressed. It was tough enough telling family my decision. Hotel made it easier.
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Westin is extending the group rate for extensions due to weather.
Please check with the front desk
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It would have been tougher if somebody else had to tell them that you made a different decision….
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Exactly the situation I didn’t want to get in, because we HAVE to be home tonight. So we went commercial and I’m so glad we did. Without that pressure I definitely would have waited another day like Chris is choosing to do. Enjoy the extra day! 
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