Much to the delight of a room full of engineers, PEA has recently acquired a new toy and this particular gliding-gadget sounds more like a swarm of angry wasps than anything else in our tool cupboard.

Site inspections involving difficult-to-reach places always represent a compromise on safety or involve hiring expensive cranes/equipment to adequately inspect. A drone allows us to take high resolution 4K footage of locations which were previous very difficult or expensive to examine. Whether you’re concerned about cracks or corrosion, damage or deflection, the level of detail captured by modern drones allows for a safe and accurate breakdown of the condition of infrastructure.

PEA’s pilots are well trained and meet all the legal requirements established by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). Each drone operator has their remote pilot licence qualification (RePL). This is not technically required for drones of this size but ensures that we’re well versed with the legal requirements and safety considerations of operating a remotely piloted aircraft.

With the right training, risk management procedures and planning, a drone can represent enormous cost-reduction and offer unique perspective simply not possible with other technologies.