How things have changed over time. Had a meeting on Thursday to organize a mapping job with the mappers and a client. The area to be mapped was 150 sq miles. I figured it would be a big deal for me. Not so much. Had the panels set and controlled early Friday afternoon with two one man crews. Would have been weeks worth of work back in the day. It sounds like even for the mapping company it won't be that big a deal like it used to be. Flights were finished on Saturday.
Hope you charged them $15,000 as that is what it was worth.
All this "wham bam, we're done" stuff really upsets me. People like to pay for effort, not "magic".
It's amazing how this stuff has changed! Being able to work more efficiently and thus incur less cost to our clients is what has gotten us a lot of work. Having a strong understanding of what the client actually needs, available GIS data, and advanced surveying and mapping technology can shorten job time quite a bit. You can accomplish more with fewer people in less time.
Tom
Humm, well probably not $15,000. Really the only ground control they wanted were 5 panels at the four corners of the 150 sq mile area and one near the center. The main time for us was getting to the points. Not easy access areas. We were lucky on the northwest one that the snow had finally melted and the roads were open to it. Still it's a good 1-1/2 hour drive from the southwest panel. Now I have to find time to pick them up.
The panels anymore are just for sanity checks. We did a similar project with the same company in 2006 covering about a 1/4 of the area of this one and they wanted 12 points which I thought wasn't enough at the time. But, that mapping is very tight when I've checked random points through the site. So they know what they are doing for sure.
Had a similar job for a mine fire area in the Books Cliffs of Utah. Rough country. With GPS and ROXON 2WD cycle it was a snap. The mobilization and travel time was more than the actual time at the project site. GPS is a wonderful tool when you optimize the use.
Pablo B-)
Cool country
Pablo, its some of my favorite county. It just isn't easy to get around in it. The northwest panel was right where we got stuck up to the axles back in 1979.
looks like this:
As time goes on, less people get more done in a shorter time and most of the time for way less fees too, it seems technology is only good for the client some days. OTOH, there are tons of projects done today that 20-30 years ago probably would not of been done at all due to the cost back then.
SHG
Too true Mr. Griggs!
Too true..... 🙂
Less in total fee's...more profit. Thats the number that counts.