Today, I posted this comic on the RPLS Today Facebook page and other social media pages:
Later, I mentioned that many of the young surveyors probably didn't truly know what a beer leg actually is. Someone inquired and so I decided it would be appropriate to draw a sketch and post it in response:
🙂
I'll drink to that (hoists a tankard).
Hmmmm...I must have owed my dad a truck load of beer...
My taping days, were connected to my transit days. The tripod used with a transit was a smaller affair, (more narrow, or spindly legs) than is commonly used today. The year was 1986. We finally went electronic. Edm, optical plummet, and wider tripod legs. I can see a day coming when the use of an edm is an academic exercise.
I have not looked through an optical inst since August or September 2016.
Such concepts as a "beer leg" will need explanation, the further we get from the tape, aka, "chain".
When I first came to "beer leg", I did not know what a beer leg was, due to the intense religious upbringing, that I had... Dad did not drink beer, though he'd ocasionally locate a bit of wine.
I predict that in another 100 yrs, many things we normally do, will be on the history pile. "Gone the way of the horse 'n buggy", as the saying goes.
Does anybody remember the days of cloth flagging?
Nate
FWIW, the beer can would actually fall through that space... but I certainly don't know that from experience...
Soooooooooo, how 'bout them Cardinals?
I remember those good old days
They had beer legs back in the days when the crew was called a "Survey Party" and the head of the crew was the "Party Chief". (And the "Chief of Parties" usually stayed in the office)
Good stuff Wendell.
I like those left-hand threads on the instrument-tribrach mount screw!
Nate The Surveyor, post: 363420, member: 291 wrote: My taping days, were connected to my transit days. The tripod used with a transit was a smaller affair, (more narrow, or spindly legs) than is commonly used today. The year was 1986. We finally went electronic. Edm, optical plummet, and wider tripod legs. I can see a day coming when the use of an edm is an academic exercise.
I have not looked through an optical inst since August or September 2016.
Such concepts as a "beer leg" will need explanation, the further we get from the tape, aka, "chain".
When I first came to "beer leg", I did not know what a beer leg was, due to the intense religious upbringing, that I had... Dad did not drink beer, though he'd ocasionally locate a bit of wine.
I predict that in another 100 yrs, many things we normally do, will be on the history pile. "Gone the way of the horse 'n buggy", as the saying goes.
Does anybody remember the days of cloth flagging?
Nate
I remember the time you were 'enlightened'. You were so against calling the site "beer leg" because it implied that surveyors drank so much beer it would fill up a hollow leg (or something like that). I actually thought you were joking until someone finally told you what it actually meant. I think I saw that light-bulb turn on over you head from way up here in CO. 😀
Yeah, Tom, I grew up under a big roof. I did eventually become an alcoholic, at 17. I am still mostly a T-totaler. The only alcohol I will use is in medicine, or herbal tinctures. I had a quite wild time back then. Now a days, excitement is finding glo evidence, or coming home to my wife, and kids.
AlanG, post: 363500, member: 7306 wrote: I like those left-hand threads on the instrument-tribrach mount screw!
hahahah nothing slips by you guys! 😀
For sure!
I vividly remember preparing red cloth squares to concrete nails back in the day.
When learning Geodetic Surveying in the Marine Corps in 1995 ,"Beer Leg" was when the instrument man (or anyone, really) stood with one foot on either side of a tripod leg.?ÿ Obviously this invoked "Murphy's Law" and the setup would almost always get bumped or nudged enough to knock the instrument out of plumb. (We used old Wild T2 or T16s back then)?ÿ ?ÿAnyways, the "Beer Leg" offender ended up buying a 6 pack for the survey party.
The 'Beer Leg' changed with the use of the EDM. Now it is when the tripod is set up so that the instrument person has to straddle a leg to look through the gun for reflectorless shots.
The old beer leg was great back when the crew, save the driver, could indulge in a road pop or four. That was how we judge the time back to the office.
A robotic beer leg is when you set up and discover a tree or other obstruction between the instrument and a needed monument.?ÿ
Beerleg is called anytime you setup your bipod, tripod or any pod and a leg is in the way for line of sight that hides the object being viewed or in the way of measuring by tape, edm or reflectorless.
We could also call Beerhead when the crew member's head, arm or another appendage, body or clothing blocks view of sight. I can't name the times that a prism pole holder has the target over the bubble and their head hides the view of the prism and they simply will not turn the prism around to the other side from the bubble.
Then there is the case when the law of sight factors in which is "just because you can see me does not mean that I can see you". Gotta show some movement out there or shout out "SHOT" so the IMan can find you in hidden location. I am open for the name of this situation, maybe WTFleg.
The first occurrence of the day buys the first round, sixpack, case or whatever their crew has set for bounty.
0.02
So, in this case do you buy instrument a nice can of oil or fresh batteries?
