DRONE INSPECTIONS

What Drone Inspection Is

A drone inspection is a visual inspection done from the air. Instead of putting an inspector on scaffold, a rope or a man-basket, we fly a remotely piloted aircraft fitted with a high-resolution zoom camera, and where it helps, a thermal camera. The pilot and an inspector review the footage as it comes in and capture stills and video of anything that needs a closer look. It is the fastest and safest way to get eyes on tall, remote or hazardous parts of an asset without shutting the area down or building access.

What We Inspect From the Air

Drones suit anything that is hard to reach. We inspect flare stacks and chimneys, storage tank roofs and shells, structural steelwork, communication and transmission towers, jetties and wharf structures, building facades and roofs, and solar and wind assets. On a live plant a drone gets a flare tip or a stack inspected without a shutdown. On a tank farm it covers roofs and shells quickly and feeds straight into the wider storage tank inspection program. The result is clear, dated imagery you can act on and keep on file.

CASA Rules and Operating Standards

Commercial drone work in Australia is regulated by CASA under CASR Part 101. Our pilots hold a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) and we operate under a Remote Operator's Certificate (ReOC), with operations manuals, aircraft registration, maintenance records and flight logs kept up to date. That matters on industrial sites, where the operator has to plan around airspace, people and plant and prove the flight was done lawfully. Flying to those rules is what keeps a drone inspection safe and the data defensible.

From Aerial Survey to Targeted NDT

A drone tells you where the problems are, not how deep they go. That is its strength in an integrity program. We use the aerial survey to find corrosion, coating breakdown, cracking or damage, then send a technician to those exact spots for close-up ultrasonic testing or magnetic particle inspection to confirm and size what the camera found. Fitted with a thermal camera, the same flight supports our thermography work, picking up heat anomalies across large assets. Because APEC runs both the drone and the NDT, nothing gets lost in the handover between the two.

Why Choose APEC Inspection for Drone Inspection

Plenty of operators can fly a drone. Fewer can read what the footage means for the integrity of your asset. APEC is a NATA-accredited inspection body with CASA-compliant drone operations, so you get qualified inspectors behind the camera and a clear path from aerial survey to hands-on NDT. We mobilise from Newcastle and the Hunter across the country. To book a drone inspection, request a quote.