Wednesday night I was working in the basement and happened across a great Alabama Public Television show on the history of the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority). They're responsible for our relatively inexpensive electric power, and have a colorful history of building hydroelectric dams in the southeast. The Fontana dam in North Carolina was discussed, and there was video taken from a helicoper or Aircam that approached the dam and then veered out over the reservoir. I thought "wow, that's gorgeous...and I need to do that...soon". That gnawed on me last night and this morning, and when it became obvious that I could escape for the afternoon, I headed out to the airport.

It's 165 miles from my airport to Fontana dam, and I managed to get off at about 2:20 in the afternoon. The sun was scheduled to set at 5:00 today. So I set sail for Fontana at about 160 mph burning a little more than 4 gallons per hour. My flightpath took me right over the middle of the Chattanooga airport, but I was at 7500' to take advantage of a slight tailwind.

These ridges reminded me of razorbacks...a treeline along the top of each ridge.

Here's Fontana Dam. It was built in something like 13 months using a gazillion tons of concrete, in a record time that has yet to be beat for a dam this large. It looks like they were doing some maintenance of some kind on top. This picture is very similar to what I saw on TV last night, except it looks like the reservoir is pretty low!

There's still snow on the north side of the mountains.

I spent a good bit of time just winding around the mountains checking it all out.

This dam looks like mostly rock, with a small hydroelectric unit over on the left. I think this one's over the Ocoee.

I made it back just in time for a nice sunset, having burned 12 gallons of autofuel in three hours. Google Maps calls that a 5.5 hour drive one way, which I don't doubt, but I had a lot more fun flying!

It's nice to have a time machine that can be called on to "take me away". I'm looking forward to making the same trip this spring when things have greened up a bit...

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