Have you ever found survey gear?

Years ago, I found a section corner that was buried at a gravel road intersection. There wasn't much traffic on this road so I set up a tripod, tribrach and prism over it. I then set up the instrument about 1320' away. As I was setting up, a local old fart pulled up right next to where I was set up with the tripod, tribach and prism in the back of his truck. "I found your tripod! It was set up in the middle if the road back there...."

Had to laugh and thanked him for his good deed.

I found a Survey Crew sign once. It had been set up on a Monday morning along a route that I was taking at that time. I saw the crew setting it up. Friday evening and it was still set up, so I picked it up. I called the company and left a message. I never did hear back from them.

I/we have found various things over the years, plumb bobs, a philly rod, a sign and a tripod with reflector over a section corner. The latter had been there a while and was labeled with the owners name. I called them and told them what I found and asked them why they didn't file their survey as required. Was presented with a box of chocolates and a map the very next day.

I have found my own, more often than I would like to admit...set up where I left it the day before...of course, it is the other guy's fault. Or, we were saving time on a backsight setup in the morning.

Have found all sorts of bars and caps over the years. Usually positioned vertically and pretty well buried in the ground. Other than that, not much.

I had some dropped off at the office. Not my stuff, rpds, tripods, one set of mirrors, only found the owner of the mirrors

dmyhill, post: 367909, member: 1137 wrote: I have found my own, more often than I would like to admit...set up where I left it the day before...of course, it is the other guy's fault. Or, we were saving time on a backsight setup in the morning.

Back in the days of transit and chain we had been "pinning lots" on a Friday. Come Monday morning we get out to a different job site...and NO chain. Remembering where we were on Friday I raced across town to where we had been.

When working in a "new" subdivision (no curb cuts for drives yet) it was a habit of mine to make sure the guys kept the chain in the gutter, to keep what little traffic there was from running it over. And sure enough, there it lay.

I had a habit of ALWAYS asking "everything back in the truck?" And I'm sure I asked and I'm sure I got an affirmative reply. What got my anger level elevated was that it was in the summertime...and we always had oodles of summer help. I had a crew of five stuffed into a 1977 Chevy Suburban...and not ONE of them remembered the chain.

This thread jogged loose the memory of a story related to me by one of my peers early on in my career. It was before my time and they'd been working on the TransAlaska Pipeline back in the 70's. As the story was related to me, they'd just finished as-builting some pilings and it was nearing the end of the day and somebody on the crew decided it would be a good time to burn a joint between them all. No sooner than they'd finished up with that doobie the radio crackles to life and their immediate presence was requested on another section of the pipeline some forty miles distant for some emergency support. Everybody dives into the survey rig and they race to the requested location where they are immediately lined out by the foreman on the nature of the problem at hand. Just about that time one of the crew asked the most innocent of questions. 'Anybody seen the gun?'

*crickets* :pinch:

Drilldo, post: 367828, member: 8604 wrote: We were working in Reeves county today and found two Trimble R8 battery packs. They were a few hundred feet apart. How my guys spotted them I don't know. Have not charged them yet to see if they are any good who knows they may be bad and someone pitched them. Strange to find those in the middle of nowhere.

One time, while looking for a corner, I found a chaining pin. I knew I had to be close. Couldn't find the corner though. Kept the chaining pin.

I've found backsights by other surveyors and we always returned them.

Kris Morgan, post: 367974, member: 29 wrote: One time, while looking for a corner, I found a chaining pin. I knew I had to be close. Couldn't find the corner though. Kept the chaining pin.

I've found backsights by other surveyors and we always returned them.

Dang Kirs they left you a trail to the corner and you still couldnt find it? I know how is goes, I hate when I find evidence that another survey crew was in the area and I cant find the corner either. I believe every corner is set and will go back and look as many times as it takes till i feel comfortable the corner isnt there. I always feel a little defeated when I cant find a corner, unless I see evidence it was knocked out, or the previous survey was one of the title sweatshop surveys.

Hey, we've got a bunch of crews out there. If you give me a vicinity, I can check our projects and check to see if it was one of ours.

Also, I found a tripod set over a section corner back in the mid-1980s. It was broken and I think the crew left it there as an additional witness to the corner. I didn't really know what surveying was at the time and I did carry it home but I bet if I asked around TSPS chapter 10, someone might know something about it.

paden cash, post: 367914, member: 20 wrote: ...and not ONE of them remembered the chain.

So, the rule here always was/is, that the second is responsible to get all the stuff in the truck. The PC is wraps up the sketches, is doing checks, talking with the client (and on and on). ALL the second has to do is remember to get all the stuff.

5 guys means that there are TOO many that are responsible, meaning NONE are responsible. Kind of ironic...

dmyhill, post: 367909, member: 1137 wrote: I have found my own, more often than I would like to admit...set up where I left it the day before...of course, it is the other guy's fault. Or, we were saving time on a backsight setup in the morning.

Having done similar things early on in my career I got in the habit of tying a ribbon on the truck steering wheel when I set it up to help remind me to grab it before leaving the site

I'll swear to this on a stack of Bibles. Today, I stopped to discuss a water district issue with our primary maintenance worker. His dad, who is a year younger than me, was there as well. He had a length of orange plastic cord tied around his midsection. I asked him if that was a new kind of back support, jokingly. He said, "The hydrant is running." I looked where he was pointing to see a hydrant and hose filling a fair-sized stock tank. He said, "Have you ever forgot to shut off the hydrant?" They run water everyday. They run a small business where customers arrive out of the blue. After too many times of forgetting to shut off the hydrant for hours or until the next day, he decided to go with a reminder he couldn't miss.

Went to check control on construction site where contractor was going to rent GPS. I had coordiantes for five control points to verify. Was not hard to find them. Every point had a tripod over top of it and a 4ft tall by 2" diameter pipe near by. When asked why, the contractor explained it was to help speed up the survey crew. The pipe was for an umbrella both shade and rain to be kept off the instrument, I suppose.

I recently lost and then found our data collector (running SurvCE) from our RTK-GPS base and rover equipment. I set up the base early one morning for a day of topo work then localized the rover on a benchmark about 2km from the base, after which I thought I‰Ûªd reward myself with breakfast and a coffee before getting into the work. As I sat in the carpark sipping away I checked on the passenger seat to see the rover lights faithfully blinking away, but then got a shock as I couldn‰Ûªt see the DC. So I literally stripped the car looking for it, before realizing that I had most likely left it on the hood of the car where there is a recess at the bottom of the windshield, forgotten it, and on the journey to breakfast it had fallen off. So in partial panic ($5000 loss, plus data) I retraced the route and searched everywhere, even calling in at the local police post to see if it had been handed in. Could not find it, but then remembered that the DC has a mobile phone card in it so thought that if I called it I could maybe hear it ring in the road side grass, but then remembered we don‰Ûªt leave the phone on because we only use VHF radio, and to save battery power. I called it anyway, and got a shock when the call went through, and I couldn‰Ûªt get my head around how/if my call had somehow activated the DC phone (it hadn‰Ûªt). It rang, and rang, and then a split second before I was about to give up a woman with a very attractive, sultry voice answered. She had found the DC and thinking it was a web-tablet had activated the phone (and was using it to surf the internet, which she apologised for), but she assured me she would drive to my location and return it, even turning down the offer some cash for reward. I stood there waiting still in panic wondering if she would return it or just switch it off, change SIM's and keep it ... Surprisingly, she duly arrived, and the DC was without any damage whatsoever. However, more to my surprise, she was actually a he.

dms330, post: 368036, member: 2118 wrote: Having done similar things early on in my career I got in the habit of tying a ribbon on the truck steering wheel when I set it up to help remind me to grab it before leaving the site

Flagging on the steering wheel:good:

Found a measuring wheel on a construction site. Over the years, I've found the several range rods & chaining pins.

I was running a Boundary that had been run 5 years prior and found a machete stuck in the ground.

dmyhill, post: 368027, member: 1137 wrote: So, the rule here always was/is, that the second is responsible to get all the stuff in the truck. The PC is wraps up the sketches, is doing checks, talking with the client (and on and on). ALL the second has to do is remember to get all the stuff.

5 guys means that there are TOO many that are responsible, meaning NONE are responsible. Kind of ironic...

I hated the "summer" crews. I made sure if any of the part-timers came back the next year, they DIDN'T want on my crew.

A typical 5 man crew of the era:

1. PC
2. his best gunner
3. an almost ok grunt (when he showed up)
4. idiot bone-head freshman related to the engineer whose name is on the truck
5. idiot bone-head freshman related to the developer that makes it possible for the engineer's name to be on the truck

paden cash, post: 368058, member: 20 wrote: I hated the "summer" crews.....

I asked one kid if he was going to be a lawyer like his dad, when he grew up. his response was; Nope, I'm going to win the lottery...:-S o.O

paden cash, post: 368058, member: 20 wrote:
5. idiot bone-head freshman related to the developer that makes it possible for the engineer's name to be on the truck

Had one of those. Except he turned out to be the hardest worker I have ever seen. I said, "cut line", and pointed. Came back 15 minutes later to cleared line. His hand was bloody from the blister (school doesn't make your hands hard). Never once complained. He explained that his dad worked him harder than I ever would, and didn't care one bit about blood, sickness, whatever.

He is now a senior engineer here. And when his brother wanted a job, he had one, no questions asked. Same thing. He was just happy to not be working on one of his dad's jobsites.