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Finding the .04'

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(@mightymoe)
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I was chatting with an old-timer (my age). He's retired but can't seem to give it up. So he's doing a remote subdivision in a nearby state that he isn't licensed in. There is another firm reviewing all his work and he got a call. The surveyor for that firm had concerns about his subdivision layout, his guys were finding errors.?ÿ

I asked how much error in this subdivision was he finding.?ÿ

.02' to .05'.?ÿ

I chuckled and said he must have been being sarcastic, the old-timer said no, the reviewer is deadly serious.?ÿ

Dang!!!

We aren't talking about numbers in the plat, but monuments on the ground, this land is empty, no towns nearby, only farmland.

That's some serious measuring right there.?ÿ

?ÿ

 
Posted : 07/04/2023 12:42 pm
(@lurker)
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Old Timer needs to reply with the same seriousness and intensity, "My monuments are perfect. The error you are seeing is in your measurements, not my monuments. Your crews must be doing something wrong if they don't hit my monuments perfectly."

 
Posted : 07/04/2023 1:17 pm
(@holy-cow)
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Absoutely.  Who died and gave only them the ability to play God?

 
Posted : 07/04/2023 1:24 pm
(@mightymoe)
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Then they had the age old argument about the C1/4, Old-timer found a monument that's used in a couple of descriptions and a highway. It's almost perfect N-S, but 8' E-W, imagine how that conversation went. 🙂

 
Posted : 07/04/2023 2:08 pm
(@nate-the-surveyor)
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0.04' is alot in Downtown Los Angeles, but in Downtown LA, (Lower Arkansas) it's a wash.

N

 
Posted : 07/04/2023 2:32 pm
(@williwaw)
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He needs to ask them what their secret is to producing completely error free measurements. 

 
Posted : 07/04/2023 3:18 pm
(@jitterboogie)
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hell I'm working on a plat from 1924 and all the distances to the 10th and all the directions are only to the minute.

I'd like to see how they handle that deal.

 
Posted : 07/04/2023 3:19 pm
(@jitterboogie)
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@williwaw that's easy the planning department and the gis

 
Posted : 07/04/2023 3:23 pm
(@michigan-left)
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He's retired but can't seem to give it up. So he's doing a remote subdivision in a nearby state that he isn't licensed in.

And people wonder why surveying is in trouble...

Everyone like this person is the reason we are in trouble.

Not Gen Z. Not Gen Y. Not Gen X, etc. "Old-timers".

So, "old-timers"... How does it feel to be the ones ruining the profession you claim to love?

And people are worried about 0.04'...? 

 
Posted : 09/04/2023 4:45 am
(@steinhoff)
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So, "old-timers"... How does it feel to be the ones ruining the profession you claim to love?

*WARNING* possible hijack alert.

This reminds me of a conversation my old man had recently with a local surveyor up in the UP of the Great Lakes State (incidentally one of the towns where both my old man and I got our degrees in surveying...) where said local surveyor bemoaned the idea of more licensed surveyors in the area. There's already enough licensed guys around here- if there's any more we won't have any work!

Textbook definition of '!@#$ you, I got mine' if you ask me. What happens when all those older guys retire or (let's be honest) die off?

 
Posted : 09/04/2023 8:08 am
(@holy-cow)
Posts: 25292
 

In my area, we are all so busy, we don't have time to waste trying to train anyone.  Someday, when things slow down, and we have all the current money setting around waiting to be spent, maybe we can exercise that luxury.  We are not an area one would call a "growth" location.  Thus, no one thinks to join us.

Our county seat town has been home to one or more dentists since the creation of the town.  The current dentist is retiring and making no effort to find someone to purchase the location, equipment, customer base, etc.  A prime opportunity for someone who wants a customer base that will keep them just busy enough to raise a family with little competition.

HINT

 
Posted : 09/04/2023 9:42 am
(@williwaw)
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Takes me back to my very first job transitioning from framing homes to surveying in the early 90s. Talked one of the local surveyors into hiring me on and he was at the gun and I was setting a corner in a new subdivision. The corner fell in a really swampy area and it was like standing on a water bed. Every time I shifted my weight the ground moved half a foot and the pin was might as well have been set in Jello. Over and over he was trying to dial that pin to within .03’ and it was impossible. He finally explodes screaming expletives and storms over in a rage, and promptly sinks to his knees losing his shoes. I probably shouldn’t have laughed quite so hard because it did nothing to improve his mood, but it certainly improved mine.

 
Posted : 09/04/2023 10:01 am
(@bstrand)
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In my area, we are all so busy, we don't have time to waste trying to train anyone.  Someday, when things slow down, and we have all the current money setting around waiting to be spent, maybe we can exercise that luxury.

HA  Yeah right.

I guarantee the day things slow down the new excuse is gonna be "We don't have the income to train anyone right now".

 

 
Posted : 09/04/2023 10:47 am
(@holy-cow)
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Hoping wise minds prevail.

 
Posted : 09/04/2023 12:05 pm
(@mightymoe)
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@holy-cow 

You need a buy-out.  

 
Posted : 09/04/2023 12:53 pm
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