My semi-retired work load consists mostly of preparing R/W and easement documents for a couple of rural electric cooperatives.?ÿ There is enough 'side' work generated to keep me busy on incidental surveys for private individuals, almost exclusively in rural areas.?ÿ And I like that.?ÿ I haven't dug up a section corner in a traffic laden road in months.?ÿ And in limiting my work to this specialty I have also limited my contact with private parties.?ÿ And I like that, too.?ÿ It's not that every property owner is a pain-in-the-butt, but culling the herd can keep the number of jerks to a rare minimum.
A good amount of my work involves the grid service to new construction of either residences or utility buildings.?ÿ To make sure the general public has an idea of what they're looking at I usually shoot a landmark or two to show on the easement drawing.?ÿ In the case of a new house or barn, I usually show the structure's footprint.?ÿ I like to think it gives my simple drawings a little "class".?ÿ The other day I had a work order that involved about 2000' of aerial primary to be placed serving a new residence being built way back off the road.?ÿ I went ahead and shot the corners of the house under construction to show on the drawing.
I got a call from the owner a few days ago.?ÿ He wanted me to change my?ÿ drawing to show his house 'correctly'.?ÿ Since this was a large (4000' sq. ft. or so) house I immediately assumed his complaint was that I had probably left off a few corners of the house.?ÿ I explained I actually only shot 5 or 6 corners and there was were probably a dozen and a half.?ÿ I also explained I was merely attempting to show a rudimentary footprint that actually had nothing to do with the proposed easement.?ÿ It soon became clear he wasn't happy with the way the house was oriented.?ÿ He told me he meticulously laid out the foundation himself with his phone so it would be aligned to 'true' cardinal directions.?ÿ
By this time I had the drawing opened and saw that a N-S line on his house was about 6 and a half degrees to the northeast.?ÿ I asked him 'how' he had used his phone.?ÿ It seems his phone had a compass app or feature.?ÿ I explained the difference appeared to be geo north vs. magnetic north.?ÿ I asked if the phone used a magnetic sensor or possibly GPS (I fall short of understanding the tech side of phones).?ÿ He didn't know.?ÿ My bet is his phone's compass app used magnetic just from looking at the results.?ÿ?ÿ
We both apparently learned something from the conversation.?ÿ But he sure seemed disappointed though because his mobile phone couldn't lay out a foundation of a house to where it would look "square" on GE after completion.?ÿ
Oh well...
A fellow surveyor got a complaint that the house plans were all wrong because the master bedroom wasn't aligned in a true north-south direction (like that was his fault!).
The complaint was that it was?ÿ 180?ø off, so he flipped his north arrow?ÿ on the plat 180?ø and everyone was happy.
What a coinkydink??ÿ Last evening I was killing time in the hallway during an exceptionally boring section of the County Commission meeting.?ÿ The only acceptable thing to play with was my smarter-than-me phone.?ÿ For the first time, I checked out the compass app.?ÿ It became clear immediately that the building?ÿ did not match the compass reading by a few degrees.?ÿ Any common person looking at the building would say it ran north-south.
For the first time, I checked out the compass app.?ÿ It became clear immediately that the building?ÿ did not match the compass reading by a few degrees.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to compare the phone app with something reliable and report the results.
did not match the compass reading by a few degrees
A few degrees? Seriously? You and I, maybe, and a few others here, maybe, but you're right;?ÿ
Any common person looking at the building would say it ran north-south
?ÿ
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And what will the consequences be?
There's always going to be a consequence
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The compass app is another tool that needs to be set correctly and calibrated each time it is turned on........
uh-oh, I've been tying in corners using my phone, I thought it was perfect.?ÿ
The sad part about it, is that most compass apps will contact to you GPS, get a location, and calculate a magnetic declination. You just need to check a box in the setting menu to choose what North your phone shows.
Another Surveyor and I were on a field site review regarding a bad case of surveying. We happened to run into the Developer. He proceeded to lecture us on how Surveyors got screwed up surveying in the area due to the magnetic attraction of Iron Mountain. He explained that Iron Mountain throws compasses off 20 degrees( the magnetic declination happens to be 18 degrees in this area).
We had a pretty good laugh at his expense on the way back to town.
