Storage tanks
Roof, shell, stairways, walkways, vents, foaming systems, gauging — full external condition photo register.
Primary service line
Industrial Drone Inspections — disciplined asset capture for heavy industry.
Tanks, vessels, structures, conveyors, stacks, facades, pipelines and hard-to-access plant — captured with reduced reliance on scaffolding, EWPs or shutdown windows for suitable visual scopes, and reported in a format your asset-integrity team can review.
Inspection-grade data — not aerial photography.
Most drone operators sell flight time. Miles Away Aerial sells organised inspection support data. Each industrial capture is scoped, planned and reported with defined asset coverage, visible anomaly documentation, location notes, and a deliverable structured for client or engineer review.
Miles Away Aerial has integrated drone work into live drilling and production environments since 2015. That experience means a working understanding of Permit-to-Work systems, JSAs, hot-work and gas-detect requirements, site safety interfaces, and the difference between a scope that completes and a scope that wastes a day on site.
The result is an inspection support product asset owners can use: tank shell condition records, vessel external coating documentation, structural steel observation registers, pipe-rack visual records, flare-stack tip imagery, conveyor and stockyard coverage, facade and cladding records, and chimney/stack condition tracking.
Asset coverage
What we inspect.
Industrial drone inspection is most valuable where assets are tall, hard to reach, hazardous or live. Below are common assets we capture — if your scope isn't listed, ask.
Pressure vessels & columns
External coating condition, insulation jacketing, lagging, drains, instrument tappings.
Flare stacks & chimneys
Tip imagery, ladder & platform condition, structural steel, knock-out drum exteriors — captured live.
Pipe racks & pipelines
Long-run pipe-rack condition, insulation jacketing, expansion loop integrity, pipe support inspection.
Structural steel
Truss work, gantries, columns, bracing, fasteners — high-zoom standoff capture.
Conveyors & stockyards
Conveyor structures, transfer towers, stockpile condition, environmental compliance documentation.
Façades & cladding
Industrial buildings, processing modules — façade condition, fixings, sealants and water-ingress evidence.
Process modules
Skid-mounted units, packaged equipment, exchanger banks, fin-fan cooler decks — top-down and angled capture.
Roof & cladding plant
Roof-mounted equipment, vents, escape routes, roof drainage, lightning protection.
Engineering credibility
Why industrial sites engage Miles Away Aerial.
Operator-side experience
Tom is an offshore drilling supervisor — Shell, ExxonMobil, Santos, Beach Energy. We speak the language of permits, integrity engineers and shutdown planners.
Engineering reporting
Outputs are formatted for asset registers — visible anomalies, location notes and comparison records structured for review. Not a photo gallery.
Live-asset capture
Permit-to-Work, Hot Work, Gas Test and site-specific access constraints are integrated into your site's safety systems, not bolted on.
Repeatability
Captures are designed to be repeated — same flight paths, same coverage, comparable imagery for condition tracking over months and years.
Standoff sensor capability
High-zoom optical, radiometric thermal and LiDAR on enterprise platforms — high-resolution visual detail from managed standoff positions.
$20M insured
Public liability and aviation insured. Documentation, certificates of currency and operating procedures supplied prior to mobilisation.
Deliverables
What you receive at the end of an industrial inspection.
Every deliverable is structured for direct ingest into your maintenance workflows.
- Annotated observation photo register (asset-keyed)
- Visible anomaly log with location and priority notes for review
- Geo-located thermal anomaly summary (where relevant)
- High-resolution imagery (RAW + JPEG)
- 3D photogrammetric model of complex assets
- Repeatable flight plan for future captures
- Field condition summary for client / engineer review
- Pre/post comparison records for change tracking
- Secure cloud delivery or controlled file sharing
- Raw imagery archive for client retention
Methodology
How an industrial inspection runs.
Scope alignment
Confirm asset list, inspection objectives, observation categories, deliverable format and reporting timeline directly with the engineering or integrity owner.
Compliance & planning
CASA pre-flight planning, JSA, airspace approvals and site-specific risk assessment in AVCRM. Coordination with site permits and PTW.
Mobilisation & site capture
Induction, permit issue, flight execution to agreed scope. Suitable visual scopes may be completed while assets remain operational, subject to site controls and approvals.
QA & processing
Visual data culled, thermal data calibrated, photogrammetry processed in DroneDeploy / DJI Terra / Pix4D depending on output.
Reporting
Observation register populated, anomalies tagged, comparison to prior inspection where available, and a summary issued for client or engineer review.
Hand-off
Secure delivery, debrief call with your engineering lead, raw imagery archived for retention.
Thermal capture
What a useful thermal drone survey actually looks like.
A useful thermal survey is calibrated, geo-located, repeatable and ready for engineering interpretation. It is delivered as radiometric imagery (FLIR R-JPEG or equivalent), with each frame tagged with location, altitude and capture conditions. Anomalies are tabulated against a defined threshold — not labelled "hot spot" in a slide deck.
Miles Away Aerial captures radiometric thermal data on enterprise DJI platforms. The founder is Thermography Level 1 qualified (IPI Learning) — the foundation for credible aerial thermal data capture. For projects where formal sign-off is required, an independent Cat 3 thermographer review and sign-off is coordinated.
Captures are planned around the conditions thermal data actually requires: solar irradiance, time of day, sky conditions, surface emissivity and asset operating state. Bad thermal data is captured at the wrong time of day. Good thermal data is captured the way the physics demands.
Thermal applications
Where thermal drone capture earns its keep.
Substation & switchgear screening
Connection-point hot-spot screening, transformer surface temperature mapping and switchyard infrastructure thermal screening.
Building envelope & moisture
Heat-loss mapping and thermal patterns that may indicate insulation or moisture issues in commercial and industrial buildings.
Rotating & mechanical equipment
Bearing temperatures, motor housings, gearbox surface heat, conveyor head and tail pulleys — predictive maintenance support.
Process & insulation
Thermal anomaly screening for insulation jacketing gaps, refractory concerns and heat-loss patterns on process piping, vessels and exchangers.
Tank fluid-level & condition
Thermal patterns that may support liquid-level review, ullage review, roof drainage checks and sludge or emulsion screening.
Offshore oil & gas
Offshore assets we inspect.
Platforms & jackets
Topside steel, jacket above splash zone, riser exteriors, conductor guides, helideck infrastructure.
FPSO topsides
Process modules, flare stacks, accommodation, helideck, lifeboats, marine equipment, cargo manifolds.
Flare stacks
Tip imagery, structural steel, ladder & platform condition and knock-out drum exteriors — lower-disruption capture where site controls allow.
Process modules
Module exteriors, piping spool condition, instrument tappings, mechanical equipment skids.
Drilling rigs
Derrick, substructure, BOP storage, riser tensioner, mud pump enclosures — onshore and offshore.
Cranes & lifting
Pedestal crane boom condition, lifting fixtures, sling baskets, helideck monitoring.
Mooring & turret
FPSO turret-area structural, mooring chain inspection support, splash-zone external condition.
Pipeline shore-crossings
Onshore-offshore pipeline transitions, beach approaches, valve stations.
3D asset documentation
Offshore MODU — whole-asset 3D condition record.
2,190 drone images were reconstructed into one connected asset model, with Gaussian splatting used to preserve visual detail and maintain context from the full structure down to individual hull areas.
Related services
Often combined with industrial inspections.
Direct quote
Scope an industrial inspection.
Send the asset list, the objective and the access constraints. You'll receive a written quote and methodology, typically within one business day.