Bad Decisions: High Altitude is a reminder that airplanes do not care how confident you feel or how good the weather looked an hour ago. At higher elevations, performance erodes quietly, margins shrink, and small miscalculations compound fast. This February 2026 GA Explorer series moves through airports where density altitude, terrain, and weather turn routine flying into deliberate flying. Every leg rewards planning and punishes assumptions. The goal is not to prove you can land anywhere, but to prove you know when to slow down, go around, or walk away. In thin air, judgment matters more than horsepower.

Mission Overview:

You’re not flying into these airports because they’re difficult. You’re flying into them because they’re honest. At elevation, the airplane tells the truth early and often. Acceleration feels lazy. Climbs take patience. Approaches arrive faster than expected and leave less room for correction. Nothing is broken, nothing is unfair. This is simply how thin air works.

These flights are not about completing a checklist and moving on. They’re about pausing before release, running the numbers twice, and deciding whether today is the day or the day you turn back. Some legs will look perfectly flyable until the moment they aren’t. That’s normal here. The correct response is not persistence, it’s restraint.

Fly like the next option matters. Plan every departure as if the runway won’t forgive you. Brief every approach as if you will have to abandon it. The pilots who finish this series aren’t the ones who force the landing. They’re the ones who recognize a bad decision early enough to survive it.

Suggested Aircraft:

Piston: Beechcraft Bonanza, Piper Turbo Arrow, Cirrus SR22T, Diamond DA40 TDI, Cessna C182.
Turboprop: Daher TBM 850/900, Pilatus PC-12, Pilatus PC6 Porter, Beechcraft King Air, Kodiak K100, Cessna C208 Caravan.

Admin Notes:

You can fly these missions on your own or get a group going - it’s up to you. Make sure you choose an appropriate aircraft and conduct proper flight planning.

To get the Explorer server role (access to Explorers DISCORD channel) and 2000 TPC Points

Fly into the airports described below (500 points per airport).
Leave a comment on this post with details about your journey.
Post pics from your flight in screenshots channel on DISCORD.
[OPTIONAL] Post a video of your landings in streams and videos channel of TPC Discord, for extra 500 TPC Points!