No-Entry Confined Space Specialists

Confined Space Drone Inspections.

Compare quotes from specialist UK drone operators using cage-protected, collision-tolerant platforms to inspect sewers, tanks, silos, and culverts — with zero human entry.

“Every drone pilot on this network is personally vetted by me — insurance, qualifications, flight history.”

Peter Leslie · Founder & GVC Drone Pilot

Trusted by site managers & agencies across the UK

Need a confined space inspected?

Post your details to compare quotes from cage-drone specialists.

Sending people into confined spaces is your highest-risk job.

Facilities managers, water engineers, and process safety leads deal with the hardest permit regime on any site every time a tank or sewer needs a look. Cage-protected drones cut the permit entirely.

Confined Space Regs 1997

Human entry requires gas testing, rescue teams, and top-man cover every time. A collision-tolerant drone removes the person from the atmosphere entirely and sidesteps the bulk of the permit burden.

Downtime & Drain-Down Costs

Draining, ventilating, and decontaminating a tank or silo to make it man-entry safe can take days and cost tens of thousands. A cage-drone flies in through a 600mm manhole with the asset effectively offline for hours, not days.

Human Risk Exposure

Atmosphere, engulfment, and entrapment risks kill workers every year in UK confined spaces. A drone inspection means nobody ever has to go in — HSE approval follows naturally.

Not every drone pilot can fly an Elios through a manhole.

By Peter Leslie, Founder & GVC Drone Pilot

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Confined-space flying is a specialist discipline. It needs GPS-denied navigation, aggressive collision tolerance, and a drone pilot who can read a live video feed inside a pitch-black vessel — usually while managing a tether.

Every drone operator on this network who offers confined-space work flies a caged platform (typically Flyability Elios 3 or equivalent), holds a GVC with appropriate sub-category, and carries £5M public liability cover plus confined-space specific insurance endorsements.

The result is a documented inspection that satisfies HSE, your insurer, and the asset owner — without a single confined-space entry permit being issued.

Elios 3 & Equivalent Drone operators

GVC & £5M Public Liability

Deliverables your process safety team can file.

Our confined-space specialists deliver measured, annotated, and safety-audit-ready outputs.

Video & Stills with Measurements

Full HD video with distance-to-target overlay plus high-resolution stills — measure corrosion depth, spall width, or wall loss directly from the captured frame.

Defect Annotation

Each defect pinned on a developed-surface diagram or 3D point cloud, classified by severity, and time-stamped against the raw footage — so integrity engineers can action findings without re-watching hours of video.

Safety & Audit Log

Every inspection comes with a full method statement, RAMS, insurance schedule, and flight log — ready to attach to HSE documentation or an insurer's audit trail.

Book your confined-space inspection in 3 steps.

We connect you with cage-drone operators who already have the kit, the insurance, and the experience.

Describe the Space

Tell us the vessel type, access size, internal volume, previous contents (if any), and what you need to evidence. Takes under two minutes.

Compare Specialists

We route your brief to Elios-class drone operators in your region. You receive quotes with platform spec, insurance coverage, and deliverable format.

Inspect & Report

Your drone pilot attends site induction, flies the internal space from the access hatch, and delivers a packaged report with annotated video, stills, and safety log.

Start Your Project Brief

Eliminating confined-space entry entirely.

See how water utilities, process plants, and facilities teams use cage drones through our network.

"We had a 14m clean-water reservoir that needed a five-year internal inspection. The Elios drone pilot gave us high-definition footage of every wall panel without us draining or sending anyone in. HSE completely satisfied."

Fiona G.

Asset Engineer, Hull

"Flour silo needed inspecting pre-recommission. The drone flew in, mapped residual build-up and identified a cracked weld we would have missed visually from the hatch. Saved a rework weeks after start-up."

Tom C.

Production Engineer, Hull Docks

"Old Victorian culvert under a town centre road, too risky for a CCTV crawler with the debris level. The caged drone got us annotated footage from end to end in a single shift, and the highways team could finally commission a repair."

Laura K.

Drainage Engineer, Birmingham

Confined Space Inspection FAQ

Technical questions on platforms, qualifications, and lighting.

What drone platforms are used for confined-space work?

The dominant platform is the Flyability Elios 3, which is fully caged, collision-tolerant, LiDAR-equipped, and purpose-built for GPS-denied environments like tanks, silos, sewers, and culverts. Our drone operators also run equivalent platforms such as the Elios 2, Skydio X10, and custom cage builds where they better suit access restrictions.

What CAA sub-categories cover confined-space flight?

Flights inside a structure with no uninvolved persons below typically fall outside the standard Open/Specific category framework — confined interior flight is treated as indoor operation. Our drone operators still maintain a GVC (A2 CofC is not enough) and fly under their Operational Authorisation, with a documented risk assessment that aligns with both CAA guidance and the asset owner's permit regime.

Does my insurer recognise drone inspection in place of man-entry?

Yes. UK tank, pressure vessel, and written-scheme insurers increasingly accept Elios-class imagery as supporting evidence for internal examinations, particularly when paired with an engineer-surveyor's sign-off. Our drone operators carry £5M public liability with confined-space endorsements, and we can supply the insurance schedule upfront for your insurer's review.

How do you light the inside of a dark vessel or sewer?

The Elios 3 carries a 10,000-lumen onboard lighting rig plus thermal and LiDAR payloads, and drone operators can add supplementary ground-based floodlighting at the access hatch for wide interior vessels. For very large volumes, multiple short flights with different lighting angles provide the coverage needed for defect-grade imagery.