Flyability Elios 3 Cuts Downtime by 75% - Maps Flood Debris in One Shift

When wild summer storms dumped tonnes of rubble into a ventilation shaft at an underground gold mine in North Queensland, the operators didn’t have time to muck around. They needed to know, fast, how much debris had come down, what kind of damage it had done, and whether it was safe to send crews back underground.

Brief

The geotech team needed a full 3D point cloud of a massive 70m x 50m void to get eyes on the state of the ventilation shaft, without putting anyone in harm’s way.

Key requirements

• Full coverage of the entire void – tight corners, overhangs, the lot
• No boots in the danger zone
• Data delivered within the same shift to avoid unnecessary downtime
• Live visuals on-site to make decisions on the fly

Existing method

The mine’s traditional methods were slow, risky, and unreliable. Crews were getting sent into dodgy areas with kit that barely did the job, and they still ended up with patchy data.

Here’s what they were dealing with:

• Telescopic-pole scanner – Heavy, slippery in the mud, needed two people, still missed blind spots
• Scanner on a rope drop – No control, no real-time feedback, and no way to tell if the data was any good until it was too late

It meant big lighting rigs, long setup times, and crews balancing on slick rock ledges next to 20-metre drops, all while getting coated in red mud. Not ideal.

Solution

After a chat with our team, they landed on the Elios 3 from Flyability, fitted with the Surveyor payload. This setup ticked every box, fast, safe, and super high-quality data.

Hardware

• Flyability Elios 3 with Rev 6 LiDAR Survey Payload
• Lightweight carbon-fibre collision cage – flies through mesh, wires, and tight spaces
• 16,000-lumen lights – cuts through dust and pitch black
• Live 3D point cloud and 4K video streamed straight to the tablet
• Tough build – IP44-rated body and IP68 LiDAR, made for damp, dirty conditions

Software workflow

• Inspector 5 – Live LiDAR feed, quick tags and distance checks
• FARO Connect – Clean-up, alignments, LAS export ready to go
• Dual-tablet setup – second screen for engineers to mark hazards in real time

Results

The Elios 3 with Surveyor payload delivered exactly what the site needed: fast, high-quality data without risking boots on the ground. The team captured a full, high-res point cloud of the entire void, including overhangs and tight choke points, all within a single shift.

"Seeing the debris source instantly on the tablet meant we could plan support without sending anyone over the edge."

^{- Mine Geotechnical Engineer}