A buddy of mine has told this story many times. It was about 25 years ago and he had one helper with him. They needed to find a stone set in the 1880's that had been found about 30 years prior to his arrival on the scene. Roughing in by various means he arrived in the middle of a wheat field. All of the ties from 30 years earlier were gone, of course. He looked off one direction towards a monument he had found, then at another that should have been on the same alignment. He moved around a bit, then jammed his sharp shooter into the ground. A couple of scoops and he heard a familiar scratching sound. He had found what appeared to be the stone.
They tied the found monuments together and discovered that what they found was less than one foot from the record location.
Sounds like a combination of the two to me. Apparently a good combination. It worked! Either way, I don't argue with success.
Have been told many times that GOOD experience combined with careful practice builds skills. Sufficient skill level then makes the skilled person appear very lucky. It really does require both at times to be a good surveyor.
Knowing where to look is not luck, it is a skill. One that we get paid good money to perform. It has been my experience over the years that many issues and pitfalls could be avoided if surveyors "looked harder". During the research phase, in the field and in the office.
> many issues and pitfalls could be avoided if surveyors "looked harder". During the research phase, in the field and in the office.
:good: I second that!
Reminded me of the old one..... If you had a choice between being good or being lucky always take lucky. I don't think that applies to land surveying though.
The more you practice, the luckier you get.
Many years ago I was sent out to stake an old farm site property with just a deed and a scrap of a map. It abutted a Forest reserve, but was poorly monumented. Finally found 2 points that I thought were 2 of the corners. Baselining on that I rayed out to the remaining corners to search. No returns with the locater. Made a quick adjustment and started to set bars on the corners. Bam. Hit something. Started finding the Forest Reserve corners! Whew! Combo luck and experience I guess. But there is that moment when you just have to make a decision.
That would definitely be skill...
luck was when I had a set of plans stretched over the hood of the truck as I was parked on the side of the road.
My Pentel rolled off and as I bent to pick it up, a fella hit a curb and a 25 pound Oldsmobile wheel cover flew over my head and imbedded itself in the windshield.
pure luck..:bored:
Many years ago we had run a boundary survey on a 40 acre parcel and found all the corners except one. When computed this one made me nervous, it hit almost dead center of the gravel driveway for the adjoiner. Buzzed with the metal detector and no luck. Start to set the pin and need to scrape some gravel so the pin won't "slide" while driving. WOW!! where did that 2 inch pipe come from and why didn't it register on the metal detector? Calculated point was right inside the pipe. Change the plat from Iron Pin Set to 2 inch Pipe Found and breathe a big sigh of relief.
Andy
What's that old saying? 'A blind hog'll find an acorn every now and then'? Turns out that blind hog can smell an acorn farther than any sighted one. Wonder why that is .... Luck? I don't think so.
Yeah those locaters don't always work quite right. Sometimes the best tool is a pick and shovel! 😉
That would definitely be skill...
At a high school track meet I witnessed something very similar involving a discus. As one competitor was in the ring winding up for his first throw the previous guy was strolling towards where the officiating crew had been able to toss his discus. At the very instant he bent over to get his discus, the current thrower's discus went soaring directly over him at approximately the same level as where his neck had been an instant earlier. Being 30 feet out of bounds didn't save him, but, bending down at just the right moment did.
You use your skill to place yourself in the right location to be lucky.
Pasteur, 1854: "Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés."
This is most often quoted as “Chance favors the prepared mind,” but what he said was that chance favors only the prepared mind. In our context I like his reference to “the fields of observation.”
Cheers,
$5.00 to hit the machine, $95.00 to know WHERE to hit the machine & make it work.
How do you know when it's skill, luck or something else
We were looking for a quarter corner and all we had was a 7.5 minute quad map; it showed the corner in what looked like a private oval horse track. I knocked on the door of the farm house and a voice said come in.....
There was a bed set up in what could've been the living room at one time; there was a guy lying in the bed, hooked up to a bunch of tubes and monitors, nobody else was there. He invited me in and I explained what I was looking for. He told me some surveyors had been out there years ago; and I could go look and then started up a conversation. He told me he was dying of cancer. I expressed my sympathy and he assured me that he had lived a long full life, with no regrets. He had a cassette player he was having trouble with, so I got it working for him and we listened to a couple of old songs from the 1920's.
My emotions were starting to get the best of me so I thanked him and wished him well. I took a few minutes at the door to compose myself; then my buddy and I drove up to the track. Armed with a shovel and schonstedt we headed out to look for the corner. We walked to about the place on the map and didn't see any evidence. 3 of the 12"x 12" posts holding up the guardrail had cup tacks with flagging s we knew we were close. Looking with the pin-finder didn't give a signal. So I took the shovel and started poking around. I felt a spot that was a little softer the rest of the track and started digging. Sure enough, there was a brass cap in concrete, 2' down.
It was late in the day and we needed to run our traverse in. So we came back the next day. His son was there and told us his father had passed away the day before.....
Dugger
Dumb Luck
Paden,
Your post reminded me of dumb luck. I was just picked up for the morning after all night in a gaurd tower and was sitting in the back of a deuce and a half. We drove to the next gaurd station and when we stopped I remembered that I had left the m60 back in my tower. Jumped out and started runiing back, heard a shot, the truck drove off. I went back to my tower an waited. When they returned there was a hole in the tailgate where my head was resting. The guy in the next tower had attempted to clear his weapon and BANG!. A guy in the truck was hit in the arm.
Dumb me, saved my life!!!
joe
Nam 1969
Skill consistently performs at the 95% confidence interval!!!
