Tesla Terafactory Texas Update #45 in 4K: Crash Landing At Terafactory Texas - 10/23/20 (5:15pm)

Freeze! How did we get here? Hey everyone, it’s Randy! In today’s video, I learned firsthand the limits of flying a drone in high winds. It’s been windy all week but nothing like today and that’s mainly due to a cold front that came in and dropped the temperature significantly. There were lots of concrete trucks on site when I arrived so I at least wanted to get a quick update of this work and the south end and head back. Unfortunately, the drone could not budge at all when flying into the wind, even while in the high powered “Sport” mode. If I weren’t directly controlling it while capturing the site updates I did manage to get, then the wind would just push it in the direction it was blowing.

Stick around after viewing the south end for bonus footage that I’ll just let play so you guys can experience the journey as well, but just know it’s as crazy as you would expect (random panning due to loss of video signal) and hitting “invisible” walls (due to airspace warnings) so the flight path is quite erratic. Luckily, given all of the previous experience getting familiar with many of the areas around the site, I was able to quickly think of a place to ditch the drone downwind and hopefully come away with minimal damage. This was a lot harder than it sounds as I kept losing the video feed and kept also encountering airspace boundaries which prevented me from proceeding and forced me to have to descend and/or find another path to your destination. This latter part was made more difficult given I was directly over a maze of power lines and a power station at one point.

The key takeaways from today’s video are as follows:
- On the north end, the large area being dug right next to the steel structure that was erected is much larger now but is extremely shallow compared to the depth of the footers. Could a shallow foundation be poured here soon? We also see an outline of cones extending from just south of the rebar on the ground in this area to the far east edge of this section. The rest of the footers in this section have had concrete poured.
- In the central area, the new section of footers have all had concrete poured and it looks like maybe one or 2 remain to be filled that I’m sure were done before crews left for the day.
- On the west side, the GeoPier work is still pushing ahead as usual.
- On the south end, all of the rebar work is ongoing and we can even see some large blocks being assembled up on the ground level outside of the large pit. As for the foundation located within the smaller pit, it is getting some wood framing or forms and we can possibly see concrete poured at this one before the larger pit does.
- Finally and most importantly, do NOT fly your drone in high winds!

If you’re new here, please be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell if you want to be kept up-to-date with the latest content. If you enjoy it, please consider supporting the channel on Patreon via the links in the description or at the end of the video.

NOTE: The nearest lanes of highway traffic are traveling North, so keep that in mind if you are curious as to which direction is which when watching the video(s).

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Date Filmed: 10-23-20
Time of Day: Late Afternoon - 5:15pm

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Social Media

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Additional Terafactory Texas Footage Channels
NOTE: We all film at different times throughout the day so check us all out in order to catch footage from certain times of the day.

@JeffRoberts
@JoeTegtmeyer
@TxTerafactory

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Giga Berlin Footage

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Music

Turn Up Burn Up - Diamond Ortiz
Light-Gazing - Andrew Langdon
Rest Easy - Vans in Japan

[JoeTegtmeyer]

Glad you found it Randy! Live to fly another day!

[peterdog]

Always a scary and nerve racking experience to make that retrieval drive - good on you for giving yourself a marker and access, very smart!! Wind was a killer yesterday!

[acblack]

Knowing the limits of your drone will come in very handy lol Thanks for giving it your best shot. Your vids documenting this is much appreciated.

[acmefixer]

I realize there may be lower limits to altitude but the wind is slower closer to the ground.

I saw a little red flag on the antenna of an electric cart flapping like crazy in the wind, must be windy, I thought.

[erikleefox]

Holy cow! Great work setting the bird down and retrieving it!

[WailuaMark]

Awesome to see that no harm came to your drone and that you were able to retrieve it!! Another great episode! Thanks! Stay safe.

[jook]

That was very exciting and demonstrates you're a very good drone pilot thinking fast in an emergency situation and also being able to share with your viewers.

[ColinRichardson]

Brave little drone that could.
Your footage and flying has come a long way since your first videos. (Proud). Imagine the horror of this happening way back then.

[thomasandriesen]

Randy you are truly a steely eyed drone flyer! Thanks for the above and beyond to get coverage on such a bad flying day.

[kirk]

Thank you! Happy you found it safe n' sound.

[MsAjax]

Good job, Randy. What a scare! I'm still amazed how the video images remain so stable in such turbulent airflow.

[mrhickman]

Very entertaining bonus footage about how you managed what must have been a very intense situation! I applaud your ability to work out a successful solution including to make sure you had a suitable landmark!

[ChrisHplusland]

Nice recovery! How ironic - "Fallwell Lane" LOL I've been wanting to drive down there anyways, Thanks

[johnweiner]

Congratulations on fast thinking without paralyzing panic. Those drones are expensive! Greatly appreciate your efforts on our behalf.

[lib]

I'm glad you find the drone, crazy day, very thrilling footage.

[DavidShatto]

That was exciting! Glad you got your drone back

[davec]

Glad that you recovered your drone, its good experience for the future, no harm done, great footage very clear, thanks for your continued coverage of site progress, take it easy!

[migs]

Yup! Excellent use of experience and skill to save your drone. Thanks for all the details!

[zechmerquise]

Drone retrieval was actually fun to watch!

[basembarakat]

What an adventure with some tense moments despite your spoiler clip at the start of video! Good job.