Islands of the Atlantic - The Solitary Isles

These solitary isles are a collection of islands that are far removed from any other. In this topic, we will explore a few of them. Most are very small, and can easily be explored in a half-hour or less in a small GA aircraft, so they make a perfect choice for a flight if your time is limited.

Fernando De Noronha

Located 191 NM off the coast of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, this small island is designated a World Heritage Site because of its importance as a feeding ground for tuna, sharks, turtles, and marine mammals.

For my visit, I chose the Cessna 152, but the Icon A5, Magni M-24 Orion or Powrachute Sky Rascal would also be good aircraft choices.

Leaving Fernando De Noronha airport, (SBFN) from Runway 12, we start our circumnavigation of the island:

The coastline has many rocky points:

and sandy beaches:

At the northern end is the offshore Ilha Rata:

And that’s all there is to the island!

After returning to the airport, one can walk past the airport buildings, and down the road that leads to Vila da Sueste:

To the beach at Boia Sueste, which you will have all to yourself. Sit down, rub on some sunscreen lotion, listen to the gentle sound of the waves on the beach and relax. Ahhhhh…

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Saint Helena

Saint Helena is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory, and is most famous as the place of exile for Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815.

There is an airport on the island, though unfortunately it is not modeled in the game, so one needs to start cold-n-dark on the ramp. Furthermore, because the island has fairly low resolution DEM, the runway is, hmm… how do I put this?.. “Challenging”:

However, in the Icon A5, one can take off (though not gracefully) and head north along the coast:

On the far side of the island is the main residential area of Jamestown:

and Half Tree Hollow:

The center of the island is relatively flat, should you wish to land and explore:

with steep cliffs to the shoreline:

Rather than try to land at the airport, I decided to end my trip at the harbor at Jamestown:

With a gentle gradient, one can leave the water and park on the beach!:

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Ascension Island

For this flight I chose the Magni M-24 Orion. Here we are leaving the airport (FAHW):

Signs of the volcanic origin of the island:

Georgetown, Clarence Bay and Long Beach:

Green Mountain and The Peak (859m). You can land here, either in one of the clearings by the summit, or by the old royal marine barracks, just beyond the old water catchment area one can see at the left-hand edge of the windshield.

This is the approach to the barracks - its quite easy to land here with the Magni. The Peak is to the left:

Parked by the buildings. Take some time to stroll around the old barracks:

Ready for take off:

The next stop is the uppermost clearing by the summit:

A short hike will bring you to the top of the peak. Not much of a view, unfortunately, because of the trees:

And then back to the airport, seen in the distance:

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Tristan da Cunha

This small group of islands consists of the inhabited island Tristan da Cunha and the wildlife reserves of Inaccessible Island, Nightingale Island and about 220 NM to the southwest, Gough Island.

None of the islands has an airport or airstrip, so we start in the Zlin Savage Norden on the beach by the solitary settlement of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas (what a great name!):

This is another volcanic island with rugged cliffs:

signs of vulcanism everywhere:

and a main peak - Mt Olav (1,969m):

One can land near the summit, though be careful of the winds. If using Live Weather, 40 kt winds can be expected:

There is a small lake in the crater at the summit:

Back in the air, we head out over the ocean to Inaccessible Island, 18 NM away:

Then onto Nightingale Island 11 NM distant:

returning to Tristan:

and landing in the meadow to the south of the settlement, about 1 hour after we departed.

We can rest & refuel here before continuing onto the Gough Island.

Gough Island

This island is about 220 NM south-east of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago and is one of the most important seabird colonies in the world. It has no airport or airstrip, and so if one wishes to fly to it from Tristan, an amphibious aircraft such as the De Havilland CL-45 or Albatross G111 / HU16 could be used.

At only 65 sq km, one can traverse the island in about 20 minutes in the Powrachute Sky Rascal, if one wishes to start a flight on the island itself.

The island itself is poorly represented in 2024, with both low resolution DEM and photogrammetry. The terrain is uniformly represented with a greenish-whitish “grass” texture (but no 3d grass), with just the odd tree or bush. Flights over the island would be more interesting if birds were rendered in the game, as the island is host to almost the entire world population of the Tristan albatross and the Atlantic petrel. The island is also home to the almost flightless Gough moorhen and the critically endangered Gough bunting, but since none of these are to be seen, there is little reason to visit this island.

Radio Towers on Ascension Island.

I was perusing my screenshots of Ascension Island when I came across these towers near the Expedition Center at English Bay on the north coast of the Island:

The towers don’t actually exist in the game - the screenshot is an optical illusion of the Bing Map:

The towers are actually part of the Ascension Island shortwave transmitting station, opened by the BBC in 1966 to broadcast the BBC World Service to Africa and South America. The transmitter station ( now owned and operated by Encompass Digital Media) is as important today as ever, broadcasting over 250 hours of radio every week to one of the BBC’s largest audiences in the world. You can read all about the operation here.

I thought that I’d share this interesting bit of trivia. Perhaps @PuffinFlight could one day add these towers to their database - might need some custom models, though, as these are not your average city cell towers! :slightly_smiling_face:

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