Solo Survey Scenes

Doesn't look solo to me.

Looks like you've got help. 🙂

One time when my daughter was in 9th or 10th grade I asked her if she'd like to think about being a surveyor. My very petite, proper young lady of a daughter said "He11 no!"

Smart girl - but I still love what I have been doing for over 40 years.

Solo Survey Scenes

[sarcasm]Two notes:

You are much younger looking than I would have expected.

What type of tripod do you use for your iPhone when doing solo survey pictures.[/sarcasm]

Kidding aside, looks like instead of solo, you had a good crew with you that day.

Thanks for sharing Brad,

great to have a young helper, you can see he enjoyed ... last picture speaks for itself!

I'll ad some scenes from last week,
the solo part near Brussels

We were two on this job, my colleague Jan in action

greetz from Belgium
Chr.

My son, now 14, hasn't shown any interest in what I do for a living since he was about 6. If he ever decides that he wants to know more about surveying I'll be happy to show him the ropes, but I'm also content to let him define his own path. He's already a way better baseball player than I ever was, so it seems likely that his interests will lead him in a different career direction than the one I followed.

Below is a photo from a monument preservation project I'm currently working on. It doesn't show any people, but it does feature some slightly out-of-the-ordinary equipment that I use to reference a monument to be upgraded.

Had to laugh at that last one brother!

> Had to laugh at that last one brother!

Hey, if it's good enough for crossing the Kumbu icefall on the way to summitting Everest, it's good enough for getting a flowline shot, right?

Dat is SOLO like I do it!

Braddddd!

That so looks like Big Help!

BH went with me when he still took a nap mid day. He'd sleep on the 4-wheeler.

GREAT shots!

I sure can relate!

N

Dat is SOLO like I do it!

> Braddddd!
>
> That so looks like Big Help!
>
> BH went with me when he still took a nap mid day. He'd sleep on the 4-wheeler.
>
> GREAT shots!
>
> I sure can relate!
>
> N

Nate, I was thinking about you and BH all day.

I think I copied that 4W nap photo on my computer.

Brad

Dat is SOLO like I do it!

I am sometimes shocked at the stuff we will do to get a shot.

I will got back to flying solo now with my oatmeal stout...

Dat is SOLO like I do it!

Brad, BH is now 13.

He is quite a guy.

Likes bow hunting. So far, he has bagged one with crossbow, and one with compound.

Turkey season is on us, and he wants to talk about tips for his arrows, for turkey shooting.

We wonder why we raise kids, that don't like work... well, we did not let them help, when they were young.

N

Dat is SOLO like I do it!

Once when I took my son with me surveying, he drank all of his sports drink and mine, too! We left early that day. He said, " Daddy, do you do this every day?" "Yep," sez I. "Every day, and I love it!"B-)

Who needs a tripod when you can use one of these! Just managed these two pics before the camera battery went flat.

55 year old Ordnance Survey trig pillar in the UK, still fully useable with a pillar plate on top for total sta, GPS base or reflector,

Pillar top showing the central cap and mounting grooves,

Some tech info on the pillars here, there are thousands still surviving in the UK, mostly on hill and mountain tops, some have become passive GPS stations,

http://albiefield.co.uk/UK/pillar/pillar.htm

Very cool Brad.
Any of those from where I lived back in 70-71?
I'd be guessing not. Last time I looked aerial maps in the area, it was way more developed than then.

> Very cool Brad.
> Any of those from where I lived back in 70-71?
> I'd be guessing not. Last time I looked aerial maps in the area, it was way more developed than then.

Same County, different zip code, we were around 46106 & 46142.

Then at the end of the day we returned to International Corporate Headquarters in 46131.

46131 sounds like my old zip out by Webb Elem. School.
317 area code if I recall. I suppose it still is.

What is that out of the ordinary equipment? I have to do the same thing for several monuments, and would like to know what it is and how it works. Thanks

The most prominent oddball item in the photo is the homebrew fixed-leg tripod. It supports a laser plummet that's centered over the monument, which is often a foot or two below grade.

The advantage of this tripod is that it's quick to set up. I don't have to place each leg, I just (gently) plunk the whole thing down about where I want it, rough level the tribrach, turn on the laser plummet, then pick the whole thing up and move it over until I'm on the monument. Now I can fine-level the tribrach and shift it until the plummet is centered over the point.

Once the laser plummet is centered on the monument, I place the 4-foot aluminum ruler under the tripod so that the laser dot is half on the 2-foot mark and half on the monument point. Next I put the red sandbags (nylon ditty bags filled with pea gravel) on the ruler to hold it in place while I use a red pencil to mark the 2-foot straddler points. Rotate the ruler about 90° and repeat. Then I remove all the equipment and drive concrete nails at the straddler points, putting a punch mark in each one at the intersection of the red pencil lines.

Now the monument is ready for the construction monkeys who will install the new monument (concrete post with brass disk in a standard monument well). When they're done I'll come back and use the same equipment to mark the monument point.

I have about 35 of these do to, and have done about 50 on previous contracts, so the time spent building the tripod was well worth the effort.

Good to see your son smiling!
Looks like that tree has a story to tell.

> I have about 35 of these do to, and have done about 50 on previous contracts, so the time spent building the tripod was well worth the effort.

Worthwhile indeed Jim, the manufactured equivalent in the UK retails at around $325, and is known as a 'milking stool', it's probably too small for your purposes anyway as the legs are only around 6" apart.