Well I got out of my highly pressured political duties (day to day what I do)and got to get out in the field. It was a 4-1/2 hr drive to get where we had a survey camp with one Hughes 500 survey chariot, and a base at a highway lodge near at Mentasta near Tok.
Here is a video of our temporary field office
[flash width=480 height=360] http://www.youtube.com/v/w3fcUWczqSQ?version=3&hl=en_US [/flash]
The guys were out meandering with the helicopter, using a special mount approved by the FAA as a Field Approval. We had a Trimble R8 mounted, and slowly fly the meanders.
The weather moved down, and the guys were off to tie controlling corners along the road. I walked in a 1/2 mile from the highway to review a Dependent Resurvey that we did last year and which I had approved that had a slip-strike fault from the 2007 magnitude 7.8 earthquake. There was a tear in the land where the brush and blazed lines showed a tear in the earth and the straight lines were 37 link offset! Very interesting and how we handled it may become precedent setting as I could find no case law or other survey examples of dealing with such a huge horizontal shift.
Here I am at the back corner:
A narrative at the quake rip:
[flash width=480 height=360] http://www.youtube.com/v/K2fsvQn8FkA?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0 [/flash]
The next day I went with the crews in the helicopter up at high locations in the Alaska Range recovering corners and tieing them in. Very cool. Those of you who know me on Facebook or Vimeo have seen the awesome helicopter footage I shot with my ContourGPS HD video cam. Too big to post here.
As a closing shot, here I am at a corner. I look like the Great Pumpkin due to the requirements to wear Nomex suit and gloves when flying. Its a good safety rule along with the helmets. And if I got lost they could find me easy! LOL +o(
Man what a fun two days. Our guys are looking really good, safe and doing the professional job. Darn I miss the field!!
looks good out there, Mike. i will try to catch up with you on our next Homer trip. my bride still has a lot of family out there chasing halibut, black cod, shrimp, and salmon
Now that we have GPS, you folks in the earthquake zone areas don't have to run down the road chasing your control points anymore. I guess you could factor in that the CORS station was doing 35 mph in a certain direction that day, and be right on the money. I'm thankful that here in coastal Georgia, things pretty much stand still. Sure, ours might creep around an inch or two, but it's no big deal. We just use our rubber measuring tapes.
Dale Yawn
Savannah, Ga.
King salmon are running now Moe!
Dale Yawn
This survey had nothing to do with GPS, but rather establishing a legally defendable boundary for property subjected to massive sudden earth movements. GPS is just a tool for measurement, it was not used on the original survey but used as our measurement tool when applicable for dependent resurveys. It is our primary measurement tool, and should be as we would be 1/10000 done in Alaska with our original surveys without it. We are surveying over 6,000 miles of boundary line this summer, don't think dragging a chain would cut it.
Dale Yawn
> We are surveying over 6,000 miles of boundary line this summer, don't think dragging a chain would cut it.
Somebody told me, once, that the early surveyors of Washington were getting about 6 miles a day. 1,000 days would be about 3 years, not a summer....o.O
It's good we have guys like you, fighting our political battles; keep up the good work!!
Cheers,
Dugger
Dale Yawn
NorthernSurveyor,
I was attempting to use a little humor here. Apparently it didn't work. My apologies if I have offended you in any way. It's Friday morning, and I thought the idea of control points and boundary lines moving around was amusing. I was wrong, looks like.
Dale Yawn,
Savannah, Ga.
Dale Yawn
No problem Dale.
oh man, we are not allowed to wear an orange suit like that.
Prisoners wear orange, we were blue (an orange vest is OK but I recently acquired a yellow vest).
Dale Yawn
Now don't get all defensive just because you can't tell a good joke.;-)
Survey Miles
Doug,
Most of our season's work is being done under Indian Self Determination contracts. Guys like Daryl Moistner help the tribes Get R done.
Not many Correctional Institutes out in da "Bush" David.... But I tell you I felt like all I was missing was a number on that suit. Most of our regular workers have other less obtrusive Nomex... This was the visitor's suit. 😀
We don't see many Inmate Crews but occasionally we are among them.
They wear orange coveralls. Our Nomex pants and jackets are yellow.
good stuff, you Ak surveyors are a different breed.
but ..you need to get Moistner to direct your vids. 😉
this will sound dumb, but why Nomex?
We don't wear it normally.
We have a set just in case we are assigned to an active fire (we do evidence mapping).
Part of the Aviation Requirements set out by the Office of Aircraft Services. NOMEX is a fire resistant material, just like Stock Car or Indy Car racers wear. If you have an accident and fuel ignites, clothing, particularly poly-based can really ignite and your burns will be more severe. So the regs are NOMEX for shirt, pants, must wear NOMEX gloves too. Then leather boots and crash helmet is basic Personel Protective Equipment.
@David Notice I have a yellow NOMEX shirt on. I did not have pants to wear, if I did I would have not needed the orange monkey suit.
Headed out guys soon... Off the grid until Sunday night.
Robert, I am pretty good at my vids, but must admit this one was real ad-hoc with my Android phone.. Included the two because thats all I had.... 😉 I never see Daryl, he is out in the bush now all summer.
yes I noticed the yellow shirt.
remember to wear a cotton t-shirt against your skin.
The photo of the Orange Nomex looks like you just stepped off the Space Shuttle...
Earthquake job looked pretty cool, would have liked to been on that one. Those lucky in house guys get all the groovy ones while passing the swamplands of Timbuktu on to us little mercenary types ...
