Dave Karoly, post: 357716, member: 94 wrote: He said that to Lawyers?
Dave,
Vince Foster said a lot of things about lawyers, and he paid for it...
:-X
The FIRST thing I'd tell him (her) is that when the crew chief sends you back for the truck is to get the keys before you leave. Personal experience.
Then I'd say that whatever you put into this profession (it's not just a job) is what you'll get out. The more of yourself that you put in the more pleasure you'll get out.
As a history nut I've always enjoyed research and I'd try to pass that pleasure along also.
Andy
I had a helper today with limited field experience but a quick learner. Before heading out I showed him this thread and quickly read off several of the very good suggestions. One I pointed out involved checking your own work first rather than accusing the other guy of being wrong.
A couple of hours later we had set a few "target" nails for where I thought certain corner monuments might be found. Then we headed out to see if we could turn up anything close by. We head to the first nail, pull it, stuck a twig to replace it temporarily and whipped out the magic yellow tube that screeches sometimes. Bamm! A highly suspicious sound was heard. A minor bit of scraping and there was a bar with a plastic cap. Only four feet too far east and about six inches too far south. Went to the next nail, skipped the twig trick, simply waved the magic yellow tube about four feet to the east and about six inches to the south. Yup! Identical bar/cap. Twice more the same results occurred.
Moved across the street to a different subdivision. Approached the mark he had made in a concrete step at the calculated point. Roughly a foot to the southwest we saw for the first time a big "+" etched in the next step down. That was consistent with two other corners we had found in another nearby one-block subdivision. Headed to our next assumed location, checked about a foot to the southwest and found a bar/cap just like the ones across the street. Headed north 200 feet. Yup! Another bar/cap.
In all, we found 10 existing monuments. None where I had theorized they might be. No, I did not label them as junk set by some jakeleg. I knew who set them by the cap. My helper asked if these results were sort of like the thread I had pointed out to him earlier. Absolutely.
This is one of those cases where the entire project is one giant puzzle. The primary tract consists of an entire subdivision that was only 380 feet by 410 feet. A second tract is directly across a street forty feet to the east. That entire subdivision is only 109 feet by 333 feet. To the immediate south of that subdivision is a single lot of a third subdivision. Across the street south of that is the remainder of that subdivision which is 209 feet by 341 feet. Then across a different street to the west of that is another subdivision that is 280 feet by 329 feet (but it should mate up with the 341 feet sub instead of being 12 feet shorter. Across the next street to the west lies a subdivision that also is across the street from the primary tract's subdivision. Across the street to the north of the first two subdivisions are three different tiny subdivisions. To the east of the second and third subdivisions in another sub. No matter how you try to mate all of the subs together, they do not fit neatly (like the 341 vs 329 above). We have found survey monuments set in all of these subdivisions set by at least six other surveyors in different decades. To further complicate things, one of the city streets is part of a multi-state US Highway with plans from 1951 that provide little help.
I will be inserting these 10 corners into the earlier created AutoCAD data to find out how many of the other corners we have recovered will agree with them and try to arrive at the logic used. The frustrating part is that we started with about 20 survey plats on file to find the other corners but there was no plat for the ones found today. I'm certain they were set as part of an ALTA/ACSM survey made of more or less the same property we are out to survey. As a general rule, ALTA's never get filed. I will be contacting the successor company to the firm that set the corners we found today on Monday to get the records that I'm sure they have. Sharing is not an issue. It works both ways, several times per year.
I'd tell them what an old surveyor friend on mine told me once. I was drawing up a survey and realized I had made a mistake. I had to go out and change where I had placed one of the corners. When I told my friend about this he said, "Yes, and it makes you wonder how many mistakes you have made that you don't know about". I've always remembered that bit of wisdom.
Aint' that the truth!?
Steven Carper, post: 357698, member: 11249 wrote: Yeah, Daddy always told me that honesty is ALWAYS the best policy. And if your boss doesn't (value honesty) RUN FORREST, RUN!
Wise words Mr Steven.
Speed will come with time...
Do it right, always, and you will eventually do it faster.. And right!
My advice to a newbie would be
"Get into engineering instead"
The opportunities are greater, The money is better, There is more job security, The professional is better organised...
(here both require a four year degree - if you are going to be lumbered with that debt you really want to pay it down as fast as possible)
"I'm pretty sure my road to surveying wasn't really much different than a lot of other folks. I'm a legacy. Pops was a surveyor....So when I quit HS in the late sixties I wound up on a survey crew.
I don't want to make it sound like it was some sort of indentured tenure, it wasn't. Pops probably gave me some loving direction like "gitta job"...and when that didn't come to fruition as quick as he would have liked...that's when I wound up on a crew."
I agree with This part of your story. That was my 17 year old 6 months ago to the tee. He now has 6 months in the field as a Rodman 🙂
There are no stupid questions.
jim.cox, post: 410323, member: 93 wrote: My advice to a newbie would be
"Get into engineering instead"
The opportunities are greater, The money is better, There is more job security, The professional is better organised...
(here both require a four year degree - if you are going to be lumbered with that debt you really want to pay it down as fast as possible)
I mentioned to my Boss once " I don't see too many Engineers running a chain saw in the pouring rain. Or sledgehammering pins when its -30"
But seriously. The one I always told my crew was "work to the mm, so hopefully you end up to the centimeter". They always wondered why I would always yell,"3mm in 2 mm west".
If it doesn't look right, it's probably not.
MitchPTD, post: 410480, member: 10124 wrote: I mentioned to my Boss once " I don't see too many Engineers running a chain saw in the pouring rain. Or sledgehammering pins when its -30"
But seriously. The one I always told my crew was "work to the mm, so hopefully you end up to the centimeter". They always wondered why I would always yell,"3mm in 2 mm west".
What's a mm? 😉
Warren Smith, post: 357139, member: 9900 wrote: Learn the old, manual method of collecting data - we can make mistakes a lot faster now! You need to know how to recognize them faster.
I like this Warren, but I'm not sure it's practical. We don't even own a chain!
Mapman, post: 410491, member: 6096 wrote: What's a mm? 😉
He's in Canada, which is part of the civilized world, unlike the US.
The best advice I ever got was "Understand the purpose of the survey before you start on it".
I've seen party chiefs locate every single step of a staircase (that's just going to be ripped out anyway), and drafters set platted lot corners 0.5' apart from each other to get an "even" lot width.
Mapman, post: 410491, member: 6096 wrote: What's a mm? 😉
Little candy coated chocolate treats that melt in your mouth and not in your hand.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
Mapman, post: 410491, member: 6096 wrote: What's a mm? 😉
I avoid MM so much that when picking out a new gun I buy the good old American measurement counterpart over the MM eqivalnet
Bill93, post: 410518, member: 87 wrote: He's in Canada, which is part of the civilized world, unlike the US.
wink
- close and open one eye quickly, typically to indicate that something is a joke or a secret or as a signal of affection or greeting.
I need to remember this is an international forum (wink - i.e. greeting form).
I would have prefered the metric over the imperial system IF I'd have grown up in it. But that isn't how our little world works. Each has their merits.
What would I tell a newbie?
Buy a Javad.