In the summer of 1970 by necessity I changed jobs from biology to surveying. Within two weeks I, and another employee of similar experience, were dispatched to the mountain side east of Georgetown Colorado. We hauled tripod, 50lbs of steel cased glass prisms, chainsaw, gas, lunch, water and other assorted items np the steep mountainside. Our task was to find a GLO monument and clear a line of sight due north towards Empire Pass. Somehow, despite our lack of experience, we found the GLO corner, a brass disk on a steel pipe. I got out the Brunton compass, with which I had no experience, and proceeded to determine north. Being as the night before I was at a concert in Red Rocks Amphitheater, Jethro Tull I think, I was a little unsteady and the compass needle shook and wavered to some degree. The solution was to set it down and let it settle. So I set it right on that flat brass cap and we proceeded to clear line!
About 50 lodgepole pines later it was obvious we were not heading in the right direction. Returning to the compass I noticed when I picked it up the needle swung about 15 or 20 degrees from the line it indicated when sitting on the monument. A small light came on in my brain as I thought about magnetic attraction and the prudence of sitting your compass on a steel pipe.?ÿ
About 30 trees later I had been educated on this subject.
I don't know.... I just keep finding ways to make new mistakes.?ÿ
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
@williwaw That's what I'm most competent at
@kscott Well, even though you wasted some time that day, you showed a strong penchant for land surveying from the beginning. For some reason, I can't see you having fun as a biologist.
I still use a Brunton compass and 100 fiberglass tape to do my reconnaissance work. I never owned a handheld GPS unit and probably never will. Especially in mineralized areas, using a compass to find the next PLSS corner of the original survey is good practice as you really are in the original surveyor's footsteps.
IIRC, Loyal Olson has a good story about finding a 1/4 corner with a compass when the straight line between the two section corners missed it by approx. 100 feet (don't quote me on the offset distance).
@gene-kooper I have LOTS of stories like that, some of them I even remember!
@loyal Which is why I'm deferring to you. I likely have mixed several of your tall tales into something that never happened.
BTW....quick response there old man! 🙂
@gene-kooper Yes, it was a good thing in the end that I lost that FWS job to budget restraints. I hadn't realized I was supposed to be a Surveyor at the time. I did learn to trap prairie dogs by the dozens a day with laundry soap however. Just in case that ever becomes a need for anyone.
I still have a couple of Bruntons although I eventually preferred the Silva Ranger for field work.
Kinda sorta had a similar experience once, although no trees were harmed, either necessarily or unnecessarily, and the entire office learned from this as well. In the early 80's we had just gotten our nice shiny yeller GTS 2, with the new concept of the battery in the handle (no wire to wrap around the leg when you weren't paying attention to it). The sales rep also sold us a Suunto Compass and a bracket that held it on the handle to get a rough North. First time I used it I set to North per the compass and turned to one of the other traverse points and did our work from there. A couple days later we come back and the Tech starts asking what the hell we did, he had to rotate the job by 60?ø, so of course the crew chief (who would NEVER make such a mistake) starts laying into me. I remembered, although it didn't dawn on me at the time, that the compass pointed me toward the water tower that was by the community college on the next hill. That got them all thinking and the consensus was there must be some magnetic attraction from the battery. From then on we'd use that compass about ten feet away from the instrument and sight North toward whatever it might point at.
?ÿ
AAAAND, by the way I'm still learnin and will be til the last of days
I have used all kinds of compasses over the years, but generally prefer the Brunton. I have (I think) a brass Brunton tripod around here somewhere. The other compass that I used a lot was the Suunto, although you have to do the declination in yer head.We used to do Trail ROW surveys with the USFS using a 6 inch staff compass and rag tape, which worked fine for that purpose. A compass is a MUST HAVE tool for retracement work in a lot of areas (along with historical declination data).
@kscott I'm also a geologist so it would be heresy for me to use anything but a Brunton. Besides, I use the Brunton to take the strike and dip of leaning stones so I can virtually stand it up in AutoCAD before I rehab the stone. The Brunton's mirror also comes in handy to illuminate the chiseling on stones from different angles instead of waiting until the Sun moves.
@richard-germiller I think I recall a seeing similar compass attachment for Wild instruments although I never used one.
@loyal My brother gave me a plastic Brunton one year and I took it elk hunting with him so as not to hurt his feelings. It snowed about a foot on us near Crested Butte that day and I got completely turned around in the white out because the north end of the needle on that Brunton was the color of the south end on my Silva. Probably would have died on the mountain if we hadn't run across our own tracks. About made me puke.
For inclinometers I liked the Suunto the best.
I haven't been at the survey game all that long but even I am amazed at how many field guys don't carry a compass.?ÿ The first PLS I worked under bought me one and I'd been using it up until several months ago when it fell out of my vest into a 60 inch fast moving storm drain.?ÿ I ordered a replacement pretty quickly and I browsed the fancy metal ones for a bit, and then picked up a plastic Suunto.?ÿ Maybe I'm the odd one but I really don't like having my vest loaded down with a bunch of bulky junk that I only use occasionally, so... plastic compass it is.?ÿ Plus I'd be mad if I dumped a fancy one into a pipe...
I browsed the fancy metal ones for a bit, and then picked up a plastic Suunto.
Once upon a time before I started surveying in a proper way, I had a job that had me navigating through kilometers of British Columbia wilderness every day. We used Silva Ranger compasses. Anybody who showed up with a Brunton was laughed at.?ÿ
When my survey work was in the woods I kept my Silva Ranger tied to my vest at all times. But now I work exclusively in the city and have no need of one. I haven't carried it for years and have not missed it.?ÿ ?ÿ
I mostly use mine for pipe directions.?ÿ I know some PLS like to have a cartoon in the field book for manholes or irrigation boxes.?ÿ This seems like a waste of time to me and I'd rather just do a table of the stuff the drafter is going to put in the leader anyway, and a compass reading for direction:
Rim=1234.00
IE(w)=6" pvc, -10', 265 az(imuth)
IE(e)=12" pvc, -9.8', 80 az
@gene-kooper I am with you on the compass, but there is value in the handheld around here. I've found geographic coordinates follow most of our 1860s through 1880s stuff real well. I used one for investigations and routinely found?ÿ rocks overlooked by surveyors using mathemagical equipment...
@richard-germiller I have a plate and screws in my right wrist from a fall and break about 20 years ago.?ÿ I have to hold a compass in my left hand to even get close, and then I have to take off my wristwatch.
And I believe ALL of us are still making new mistakes all the time.?ÿ The first superintendent I had in construction staking said, "If you don't make a mistake now and then you ain't doing enough, just don't make the same one twice".
Andy
@andy-bruner Interesting about the plate. I have several prosthetics and none show local attraction properties. Mind if I ask how old the plate is?
Mistakes??ÿ They can happen to any of us on any day of the week, especially Monday.?ÿ Yesterday, a Monday of course, I nearly set two corners 65 feet from where they were supposed to be.?ÿ If I had arrived onsite ten minutes later, my first job would have been to pull the bars just set by my co-worker following my guidance.
You never grow to old too make misteaks.
@kscott Not truly in line with the thread; however...
I took a web detour on Red Rocks the other day (hate to say I have yet to see a show there) and learned that a Tull show in the early 70s was the end of R'n'R at that venue for a decent amount of time. What an era to forego 'pop' music?!
A deep notch in the belt of your early survey days, achieving that goal in the aftermath of a stone melting rock-apocalypse.
Salud ??¯?ÿ