Australian Camera — May-June 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE

28 29

At precisely 8.19 Am on

Sunday 5 February 2017, Qantas

Boeing 747-438ER, VH-OEE, lifted

off from Sydney Airport’s Runway

34L and headed south. Twelve

hours and 49 minutes later it

would return, landing on the same

runway after taking its passengers

on the trip of a lifetime.

A few hours before the

departure, you could have been

forgiven for being a bit perplexed

when reading the departures board

in Qantas’s domestic terminal,

because the destination for flight

QF2908 was listed as Sydney. And

you don’t often see a 747 parked

on a domestic terminal departure

gate, dwarfing all the regular 737s

and 717s sitting around it. In fact,

VH-OEE was operating a very

special flight which would remain

airborne from the moment it left

Sydney until it returned... the suffix

‘ER’ stands for ‘Extended Range’

which is something you definitely

need when heading to Antarctica

and back in a day. The Qantas 747

• with its specially-trained flight
  crew – has been chartered by
  Antarctica Flights which has been
  running these very special trips
  for 22 years. They’re only possible
  during the summer season – for
  obvious reasons – and this season
  there were only four; one from
  Perth, one from Sydney and two
  from Melbourne. Not surprisingly
  then, seats are eagerly sought
  after... well, it’s not often that you
  can cheerily say, “See you later,
  I’m off to Antarctica for the day!”

Flying South

Australia is the only country from

which you can take a sightseeing

flight over the frozen south and,

consequently, Qantas is the only

international airline which flies to

all of the world’s six continents.

My seat on flight QF2908

came courtesy of the Australian

distributor of Sigma lenses, C.R.

Kennedy & Company. At last year’s

Photokina, Kennedy was named

Best Distributor globally by Sigma,

having achieved the highest market

share – covering both Australia

and New Zealand – for Sigma

lenses anywhere in the world.

This was achieved through a highly

successful campaign promoting

sports lenses and based around

the 2016 Australian F1 Grand Prix,

but the company hasn’t been

sitting on its laurels since then and

the Antarctica flight was part of a

new sales campaign. Consumers

had a chance to win the trip and

the sales staff of Australia’s leading

camera retailers could also book

themselves a spot by achieving

certain sales targets. The flight

alone would be a pretty good

incentive, but C.R. Kennedy & Co.

doesn’t do anything by halves so

it wasn’t any old seat that was

being offered here, but one

in the comfort of business

class complete with the full

Qantas service.

Does it get any better than this?

Well, how about also having a

mouth-watering selection of Sigma

lenses to try out during the flight?

Yes, it’s a hard job, but somebody

has to do it and I was happy to give

up my Sunday to bring you this

special report... well, I was only

going to wash the car.

After VH-OEE has pushed back

from the gate, you know you’re

on something a bit different

to a normal flight when the

captain pipes all the flight deck’s

communications with the control

tower – and then departures –

through the entertainment system.

It’s a long taxi to the end of 34L,

but there isn’t a lot of traffic and,

after a very short hold, OEE lines

up, receives take-off clearance

and commences its very special

10,500-kilometre round trip.

At check-in – which happens

at the gate rather than at the

usual desks – we were given

two boarding passes each with a

different seat number. At the half-

way point of the flight, there’s a

changeover and everybody moves

to the seats designated on their

‘To Sydney’ boarding passes. The

idea here is that everybody gets

some time in the ‘good seats’, but

in business class, they’re really

all good seats because there’s

so much space in the cabin and,

from anywhere, you can see out of

numerous windows. Nevertheless,

I’m in 7B outbound, swapping

to 7A which is a window seat,

although we’re encouraged to

share... something else that

wouldn’t happen on a normal flight.

Moving around the cabin is also

encouraged not just to optimise

your viewing, but because over

the Southern Ocean and Antarctica

itself, there’s no risk of turbulence.

You Want Ice

With That?

Roughly three hours out of Sydney

white specks start appearing in

the ocean... icebergs. The captain

patches into Casey Station for a

weather report – which promises

largely clear skies – and a chat with

one of the scientists working in the

Australian Antarctic Territory.

Not long after we pass directly

over Macquarie Island and there’s

much excitement because it’s

actually visible and not shrouded

in cloud which is apparently

usually the case. Depending on

the weather conditions, the flight

crew can choose from 19 possible

routes, mainly to avoid any cloud

cover. Daylight isn’t an issue at this

time of year in Antarctica... there’s

24 hours of it!

The icebergs are increasing in

number and size, although from

the cruising altitude it’s quite

hard to get a sense of scale.

Each cabin is assigned an expert

commentator – often a scientist or

even an explorer – and one of the

entertainment system’s channels

is dedicated to showing Antarctica-

related documentaries, but

helpful thought these educational

elements undoubtedly are, nothing

quite prepares you for Being There.

The next milestone is crossing

the Antarctic Circle and then...

suddenly... there it is; a vast

empty, empty whiteness. It is,

quite simply, breath-takingly

breath-taking. For the record,

Antarctica is 13.84 million square

kilometres in area, twice the size

of Australia... and about 99.5

percent of it is covered in ice.

The aircraft has descended

to around 3000 metres so every

window is now full of shimmering

whiteness. There’s a discernible

coastline and the surrounding

ocean is a mottled grey-and-white

pattern of ice floes and refreezing

patches of sea water. It’s only

early February, but already the big

freeze is starting and soon huge

expanses of ocean will be frozen

solidly white, trapping the bigger

icebergs which were previously

floating free. Even at this much

lower altitude it’s still hard to get

a sense of scale, except to realise

that everything is very much bigger

than it looks. An almost perfectly

square and flat-topped iceberg

looks to be about the size of a

postage stamp, but it’s actually 30

metres in height with its surface

area equivalent to around 35

football fields.

“Welcome to Antarctica,”

says our guide. “And, by the way,

welcome to New Zealand.”

We’re flying over NZ’s Ross

Dependency and the aircraft

begins to fly a loop around the

impressive Cape Adare so that

passengers on both sides can get

a good view. Time to break out

the Sigma lenses. I bag a 120-

300mm f2.8 EX DG OS APO HSM

telezoom which is one of Sigma’s

Sports series lenses and just about

perfect for aerial photography

from these heights. Over land, the

Qantas 747 can descend further

to below 1000 metres and so you

really can start to pick out more

details such as crevasses – which

can be kilometres deep – and

wind-driven patterns in the snow.

Heroic Feats

The route of this season’s

Antarctica Flights has been

selected to commemorate the last

of the ‘Heroic Age’ expeditions...

the Ross Sea Party which was part All images by Paul Burrows. Copyright 2017.

“Does it get

any better

than this?

Well, hoW

about also

having a

mouth-

Watering

selection of

sigma lenses

to try out

During the

flight?”

CamMayJune17_026-034 SigmaAntarctica.indd 28 13/04/2017 12:17 AM