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Gigafactory Drone Pics

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wk057

Former Tesla Tinkerer
Feb 23, 2014
6,505
17,140
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Just got done a long drive from San Francisco -> Gigafactory -> Las Vegas (not in my Model S, unfortunately).

Figured I'd post the pics I snapped of the Gigafactory up before I hit the hay.

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In good faith I did my best to keep my little drone out of what appeared to be the construction area itself to prevent any potential objections.

Unfortunately the weather was not on my side. I was battling a 20-30 MPH headwind heading from my launch spot towards the site, so it took most of my battery to reach the area. Then the winds slowed a bit once I got near (so not a great tail wind as expected for return), which meant I had super limited close-by time before I needed to head back. I didn't quite make it to the far side. On the return trip at about 700ft from my launch location a gust from the direction of the factory kicked my drone air speed up to nearly 60 MPH (full throttle return plus the new tail wind), and I had some trouble making a safe landing after the winds picked up again. I did a slow and steady spiral down to stay out of my backwash on decent at ~0.5m/sec and managed a safe landing at about 15% battery remaining.

Long story short, the wind picked up again faster than before to the point where I didn't consider a second flight safe. I hung around for a little while to see if it would give a bit, but it didn't, so, I didn't do a second or third flight as planned.

I did get some pretty cool shots from the first run, though, as you can see. I just didn't get to cover everything as I would have liked.

Enjoy. :)
 
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Great photos, thanks for posting.

I assume GF will have electricity from solar. I am curious about water supply and discharges, how is that handled. I do not see water tanks or treatment plant. Also, are they laying a fiber to the premises for IT or something else?
 
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Spectacular! One can really see how what is built now is just the "pilot plant" which is still tiny compared to the whole prepared pad for the eventual full building! Wow!

BTW, thanks for attempting to stay legit with your flight plan. It's not what "we" can get away with, but what it reasonable to Tesla that counts. Our community rep is at stake in the long run.