A bird's-eye view: drones in the Urals check the serviceability of gas pipelines

Urals gas workers have started preparing networks for the autumn and winter season. Gazprom Transgaz Ekaterinburg has been actively using drones for this purpose for the second year. The drones have already surveyed 4,000 kilometres of networks.

Izhevsk-made ZALA AERO drones patrol the network. These are single-rotor aircraft-type machines. Using GPS and GLONAS coordinates, they conduct aerial surveys of all main gas pipelines and branch pipelines over 50 kilometres long.

The devices make it possible to obtain high-definition and high-resolution images. They clearly show the state of the engineering infrastructure and the gas pipeline protection zones. Thanks to the camera linkage with the UAV navigation system, each photo has precise satellite coordinates," the company's press service said. In total, this year drones will fly over Gazprom Transgaz Ekaterinburg's trunk pipelines ten times.