The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is using the Tecnam P2012 Special Mission Platform (SMP) in its day-to-day operations. In a report broadcast on 14 October by WKRN News 2 Nashville, TVA’s aviation and transmission teams described how their P2012 SMP has become the utility’s “eye in the sky” over more than 16,000 miles of transmission lines, making line maintenance faster, cheaper and safer.
The aircraft carries a LiDAR laser scanner able to survey more than three acres of land every second, together with four cameras that photograph every mile of TVA’s transmission network. Once the data is collected in flight, TVA’s transmission foresters can pinpoint vegetation threats and send crews to the exact location.
Operating economics are at the heart of the programme. TVA Aviation Manager Phil Kanagy, who previously flew the same survey missions in helicopters, explained that while helicopters remain useful for getting in and out of tight places, their operating costs are 75% higher than those of the aeroplane. Kanagy told WKRN, “We’re able to collect the data much faster than before, much cheaper than before, and at a higher altitude than we were with helicopters.” He said flying higher also makes the missions much safer for his crew.
On the ground, TVA surveyor Robert Byrd, whose job has moved from field equipment to GPS and now to airborne LiDAR over the past 20 years, recalled working “forty hours a week, hot or cold, snakes, ticks, chiggers” in the field. According to TVA Transmission Forester Matthew Townsend, work that used to take his team months now takes about 15 to 20 minutes. Townsend said, “Saves us a lot of time, a lot of money, and it saves us from any potential heat stress, snake bites, anything like that that could hurt us out in the field”.
TVA’s aerial programme, fully implemented in 2025 after five years of research, uses the P2012 SMP for the annual survey of the more than 5,000 miles of transmission lines in its vegetation management cycle. A two-pilot crew covers approximately 450 miles a day, compared with up to five miles for a ground crew, helping keep the lights on for 10 million people.
The P2012 SMP was designed for this kind of mission. Its twin Lycoming TEO-540-C1A piston engines, with electronic engine control, are efficient at the low and medium altitudes where survey work is flown, with a fuel consumption of around 31 US gallons per hour. Two ventral hatches and onboard electrical power support the integration of LiDAR and multi-camera systems, while twin-engine redundancy supports operations over forests, mountains and populated areas.
Francesco Sferra, Tecnam P2012 Special Mission Platforms Sales & Business Development Manager, said, “Special mission operators don’t buy flight hours, they buy data, and what matters is how much quality data each dollar delivers.”
He continued, “TVA’s experience says it better than any brochure: the data quality of a helicopter survey, collected faster, from a safer altitude and at a much lower operating cost. The P2012 SMP was conceived as an affordable twin-engine platform with the payload, power and stability to carry LiDAR and camera systems all day long. We are proud to see TVA’s teams turning that capability into real savings for the communities they serve.”
