Keeping Victoria Safe and Powered, One Flight at a Time

The arrival of summer brings sunshine and life – in the form of helicopters – to the skies above Victoria, Australia as the low and steady hum of rotor blades echoes the sweet note of nature’s transition from spring.

For Powercor, a leading power distribution company, summer means one crucial thing: inspecting and maintaining more than 77,000 kilometers (approx. 50,000 miles) of overhead powerlines and the surrounding vegetation to keep homes, businesses, and communities safe and connected.

Beating the heat

Due to a generally hot, dry and drought-prone climate, ‘bushfires are an intrinsic part of Australia’s environment’, as Geoscience Australia aptly stated.

According to the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, a total of 46.9 million hectares (35%) of Australia’s total forest area was burnt over the period 2016 / 17 to 2020 / 21.

Therein lies the challenge, not just for Powercor, but for several other distribution networks across the country’s six states. Is there a way to mitigate and prevent bushfires caused by flammable, overgrown vegetation entangled with powerlines, especially when current inspection programs are falling short?

Traditionally, powerline inspection work is carried out from the ground – crews, slinging binoculars, logging hundreds of hours and thousands of kilometers over rugged terrain in camera-mounted vehicles. However, the limitations of ground-based inspections grew hard to ignore for Powercor as they faced delays, overlooked vegetation risks, struggled with data inconsistencies, and battled difficult terrain while trying to manage the daunting task of inspecting over 750,000 spans (space between power poles) every year.

Powercor’s answer was up in the air, literally.

A Bell 407GXi and two Bell 505s form the backbone of their program that is reshaping the way powerline inspections are conducted in Australia, centered on the belief that improving inspection accuracy is the only way to secure the safety of wider Victoria. Led by Ian Wallace, chief pilot and head of operations, and Ayce Cordy, head of vegetation management, Powercor is the first network provider in the country to implement a fully aerial, LiDAR-based inspection model.

One of many LiDAR scans generated during a routine powerline inspection flight (courtesy of Powercor)

Mounted with RIEGL cameras that have in-built LiDAR sensors, real-time 3D scans are generated as different Powercor crews fly overhead (at about 500 to 1,200 feet above ground level), giving them centimeter-accurate scans of the distance between powerlines and vegetation. The data collected tells Ian, Ayce and their teams where exactly they should be cutting, tracks growth rates and shapes planning for the season ahead, allowing them to pinpoint and prioritize high-risk vegetation before it can even become a threat.

The results were immediate.

“We were able to complete in eight months with helicopters what used to take 12 months on the ground,” Wallace explains. “That time efficiency gives us a critical head start in planning and clearing vegetation because the annual task of managing the 13 to 15 million trees along our network is enormous.”

The single-engine advantage

The single-engine Bell 407GXi delivers exceptional performance and reliability, setting the highest of benchmarks for its class of light helicopters.

Powercor's Bell 407GXi on display at Avalon Australian International Airshow 2025

With a powerful Rolls-Royce Model 250-C47E/4 turboshaft engine, extended fuel capacity, IFR capability and smooth four-bladed rotor system, it offers Powercor the endurance and performance needed for long, demanding inspection routes, especially in Victoria where wind and weather can shift in an instant.

Complemented by a set of Bell 505s, Powercor’s fleet is built on the kind of agility and maneuverability only afforded to single-engine aircraft, enabling them to tackle any terrain as they fly, in and out of wind, along a distribution network that constantly meanders, contours the ground, weaves through tight corridors and low-level passes.

Wallace added, “You would think that turbulence is a big concern for us, due to the kind of conditions that we fly in, particularly in mountainous areas, but it rarely is and I put that largely down to the four-bladed rotor head of the Bell 407GXi, which creates stability and gives us peace of mind.” 

As Australia faces increasing risk of climate-driven bushfires, Powercor’s aerial inspection program is not just a leap in operational efficiency – it is a frontline defense in safeguarding the lives, land, and infrastructure of Victoria.

“Keeping Victorians and Victoria safe and powered is at the heart of what we do, and the only reason why we strive to improve our inspection and vegetation management programs continuously. The bushfire fight in Australia never stops – and neither will we,” Cordy concluded.