Ever forget to lock the tribrach to the gun? Nothing is foolproof.
As soon as "Dude" left his lips, he'd be GONE!
I had one run over. I was working for a construction company but it was my gun. A father and son worked there also. I needed to go talk to the super, the gun was set up in the parking area of the street. The son was setting there on the grass eating lunch and their truck was parked in front of it. I asked the son to watch the gun for five minutes while I left to see the super. While I was gone the dad came out, got in the truck and backed over the gun, tripod and all. The son watched it happen. Company insurance bought me a newer gun but it cost more than the old one and the insurance payout.
I had another one smashed buy a steel worker that dropped a tool from above. The company insurance bought that one also. The steel worker wouldn't own up to it. A couple weeks later he was caught working in the steel without being tied off. I heard it over the radio to escort him to the gate, take his pass (ID) and never let him on site again. He had already been warned a couple times.
Had a young lady on my crew training as an IO once. She forgot to attach the instrument and it fell off. Luckily, it was in deep leaves and soft ground, so no harm was done, but I tried to express what a big deal it was. I did my best to explain as nicely as I could, but it must not have come across that way, because she was crying when I finished.
We all make mistakes every now and then, so every time I make a stupid or costly mistake, I make a new rule so that won't happen again. needless to say I have made quiet a few rules in 40 years and when I work with someone and am constantly reminding them don't do this and that, I get the same Hey Dude kind of attitude. Sometimes simple things like never set anything on the hood or bumper because if you forget it, you can always drive back for something but if its on the hood or bumper chances are it will never survive the fall or never be found. When setting the tripod, a systematic order of how to always helps not forget to secure the Instrument or even to be sure that your set over the point.
There is a very high chance I'd eloquently tell Mr. Boss man, owner, or whatever, that he has to keep this kid elsewhere. Or I leave. It's very simple. I mean, unless he is paying me 30k a month! I'd CONSIDER babysitting, for 30k a month! (as long as it was NOT my equipment). Just my sentiments.
N
This tale hits me square in the present. I have an instrument in the shop now that is on its second fix in 18 months because of the same person. Neglect and personal refusal to adhere to good judgement and no schooling or mentoring could have helped. The man simply refused to follow any guidelines. He is now away from surveying and I doubt he will return, not with me for sure.
Welcome to the next generation.
They have nothing
They want nothing
They offer nothing
Aside from the obvious, they are also some of the most intelligent, creative, and evolved humans to ever exist on this planet.
They are so highly skilled with useless talents that include how to play games and answer everything with such clever wit while having everyone over a barrel knowing the fact that we must decide upon their futures for them, for they appear to have none without us.
I now have two new prospects, One that I haven't seen nor heard from in a week and another due to arrive most any day.......
Had one go bang once when I had my back turned. I was surveying a tract around a house that the lender was allowing the borrower to keep while they took over all the rest of his land. He seemed harmless enough until BOOOM. The insurance paid but I was without a total station for about a week and I was about 60 miles from home trying to get this whipped out on a Saturday. Made sure the "bast***" wasn't around when I went back.
Makes me think twice about ever wanting to try to mentor a new young person into the profession with my expensive gear. But then again, I am not getting any younger. Ah, I do feel your pain.
Beer Legs, post: 338303, member: 33 wrote: And then he climbed in to the work truck, turned on the hotspot for the GPS and surfed the internet with his phone the rest of the day.
I would have offered to show him how to 'calibrate' his phone...faster downloads and such...3# hammer and a pine stump.
Dude, Why are you so upset?...it was just YOUR phone...LOL
DDSM:beer:
I've never lost an instrument. We have a hard and fast rule that if the instrument needs to be moved more than a few feet, it goes back in the case. And in very rough terrain it gets removed from the tripod no matter what- it just isn't worth the loss in productivity if the TS has to go in for repair or replacement.
Incidentally, there's a YT video of someone explaining a TS setup and yet he failed to screw down the tribrach to the tripod! It can happen to anyone, I reckon...
ETA: on another note, I heard a story that happened many years ago where a transit was set up in one location all day but there was some vibration from some equipment that worked the mount screw loose. The instrumentman grabbed the tripod with the transit no longer screwed down, and into the drink it went.
I am just a bit of a trouble maker. :angel: That individual would have been standing in front of his relative as I described what occurred. Once his response was described I would have told his relative I would not take anyone with his bad attitude into the field again. If I'm asked to do so I understand how little my opinion is worth here and will find other employment. :pissed:
I watched one unfold a few years ago....
Visiting a site to set pins. The control (set by the boss) was on the edge of a subdivision road. We set the robot up and strung cones out a hundred feet or so. Went up the hill setting pins.
The first thing I noticed was that familiar sound of a car hitting a cone. Then again..
As she hit the third cone she looked up from her phone. That was when her tire went over the tripod foot. The instrument spun on the tripod for almost 30 feet before it stopped. She floored it into a dead end culdesac.
As I approached the car she began wailing like a professional mourner. Her insurance company paid out 8 grand or so. We blew the budget and deadline....
Well, next time you need to cut line through briars or cross section a nasty ditch, he should get the job....
PLS30820, post: 338461, member: 1439 wrote: Well, next time you need to cut line through briars or cross section a nasty ditch, he should get the job....
The Nastier the better.
😛
Back in the mid-eighties we did a survey in the mountains and had to get up on an extremely steep slope for a setup. We were using a Wild T2 theodolite and a lietz Red 2L (or something like that) as an edm that we clipped on top of the instrument. We were a three-man crew and I was the Instrument Man. The Party Chief was a loud mean jerk. When we had to pack up and go back down he said "here I'll get the edm (boxed up) and you take the gun "AND YOU BETTER NOT DROP IT OR YOU'RE FIRED". I canned up the gun and carried it in one hand and had the tripod over my shoulder. This was one of the steepest slopes I have walked on with just two feet. The rodman made it down quick with his bag of tricks.
I was being very careful working may way down the slope. A few minutes in I stood above the crew chief and heard him yell. He had fallen on his butt and dropped the edm. That thing would roll, hit a rock and fly in the air and fall and roll and bounced it's way down to the creek @ the bottom. We could see it all the way down there in the bright red (airtight) box as it started to float down the river. I radioed the rodman that he needed to watch for the edm floating down his way. Trouble was I kept laughing as I talked. He asked me if I was kidding him, and I told him no that the PC had dropped it and it landed in the water.
He went back and found it (it had lodged up against a rock and quit taking it's boat ride). I would have felt sorry for anyone else that dropped an instrument, but I just had to laugh out loud @ this one. The rodman told me later that he thought I was probably lying to him, but he figured he better look for it just in case. I told him that I just had to laugh at the whole ordeal after I had been threatened to be fired if I dropped anything.
The gun was still good. It was in the same well-padded case that it had come in. No water had gotten inside, and we checked distances against other machines when we got back.
Yeah, I got in the habit of saying, "I got it" whenever someone passes me any item that is worth more than my shirt. Even if the gun in is the case and latched shut, I would tell my crew, "don't let go until the other person says that they've got it."
