Here's a spot that I was just about to pass up, but the name was intriguing and it was an area of the Pacific that I have not yet explored in the sim. I had heard of the one island, Espiritu Santo, from WWII stories of the Pacific, but I had never visited this area in the sim. I was glad that I "stopped in" for an exploratory flight, for this is one beautiful set of islands.
The oldest evidence of inhabitants in these islands dates back to about 1300 - 1100 B.C. The first European to reach these islands was the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós, in 1606. James Cook visited the islands on his second voyage in the late 18th century, and named them New Hebrides, whereupon Europeans began to settle the area.
In 1887, the islands found themselves under the administration of a French-British Naval commission. The populations of the islands suffered from the diseases that were brought over by the settlers, and in 1935, the population fell to 45,000.
Most of the islands are mountainous and of volcanic origin, and have a tropical or sub-tropical climate. The nation's largest towns are the capital Port Vila, which is situated on Éfaté, and Luganville, on Espiritu Santo. The highest point in Vanuatu is Mount Tabwemasana, at 1879 m (6158 ft), on the island of Espiritu Santo. There are several active volcanoes in Vanuatu, including Lopevi as well as several underwater ones. Volcanic activity is common with an ever-present danger of a major eruption, the last of which occurred in 1945. Rainfall averages about 94 in. per year but can be as high as 160 in. in the northern islands. This can be one of those challenging areas for real-world weather flying in MSFS.
Vanuatu is recognized as a distinct terrestrial ecoregion, known as the Vanuatu rain forests. Vanuatu is part of the Australasia ecozone, which also includes neighboring New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, as well as Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand.
Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands, of which two - Matthew and Hunter - are also claimed by the French overseas department of New Caledonia. Of all the 83 islands, from largest to smallest: Espiritu Santo (1527 mi²), Malakula (788 mi²), Éfaté (350 mi²), Erromango (343 mi²), Ambrym (262 mi²), Tanna (214 mi²), Pentecôte (190 mi²), Épi (172 mi²), Ambae or Aoba (155 mi²), Vanua Lava (129 mi²), Santa Maria (127 mi²), Maéwo (117 mi²), Malo (70 mi²) and Anatom or Aneityum (65 mi²). There are only four airports/airfields that are represented in the sim, and from a bit of reading, I think this is pretty accurate. Here they are:
This was a very fun and entertaining area in the sim to explore. I had read that this was one of the areas that were used by one of those reality survival shows. Never saw it on TV myself, kind of thought those shows were a joke! Just my opinion though!
I had most of my settings turned up almost to max, and the scenery turned out to be spectacular! Island hopping in either a rugged general aviation aircraft or a float plane can provide hours of exploration, jumping from one island to the next. If you're putting around in a small aircraft, pay a mind to your fuel situation. Remember, there are only the four airfields to land at! I flew the Aerosoft model of the Beech 18 that came with the Freight Dogs product, and it proved to be a fine aircraft for the type of flying that I was doing.
This may prove to be an interesting spot for a Hop Race at some point!
