Land Surveyor Blogs

In view of recent developments in my family, the death of my brother, I wanted to write this article for all of those professionals (surveyors, engineers, attorneys, accountants, etc.) out there who are either sole proprietors, or one of two owners. Ultimately the article is about business succession, but I might wander a bit.

In Memory of Allen Maxwell, PLS

First, William “Allen” Maxwell was a Professional Land Surveyor in the State of Alabama, a fact he was very proud of.  Allen started out l

Unable to find a satisfactory job and stuck in a job I hated I finally opened up my own Land Surveying Firm in mid 1992. I was 32 at the time and thought that I knew everything about Land Surveying because of my previous experiences. It goes to show you that arrogance is most often a result of ignorance.

As I look back now I realize that I had no idea at that time what I was doing and I am really uncertain at this point how I managed to survive in the beginning. After a couple of bumpy years howe

we are using PENTAX survey equipment in Sri Lanka.

I've been a member of Land Surveyors United since 2008 and I must say it has changed the way I survey, how I find information and how I learn.  There are a lot of features on the platform which took me a while to find and understand and one of those is the Advanced Search page.  Using this tool you can easily find other members on the network who use the same type of equipment you do.  I've made this easy for you by running all of the searches and made them into simple links to click.  

Find Memb

Following examples are calculated with BestTachySpot.

You may have experienced this before. You are defining a new station and all points with known coordinates are more or less in the same direction. Be careful in this situation.

The situation explained with an example: 

Resection on point 1 with observations to known backsight points on the road north of the site (green in following figure). Goal is to find the coordinates of point 5.

Accuracy (blue error ellipse in map):

Standard deviation is ver

THE NEW POB

The new point of beginning for land surveys is orbiting the earth at 5,000 miles an hour 12 ½ thousand miles up in the stratosphere.  That’s correct and I suppose I owe my fellow professional land surveyors an apology for my participation in the changes we have been going through the last 20 years (see the POB cover article attached).  The fact of the matter is the PLS’s of this country have had our exclusive provenances invaded by all manor of non-surveyor professionals and others. 

There is a growing need for accurate land surveying data to be a fundamental requirement for government level geographic information systems. As an example for the USGS National flood inundation mapping science initiative a professional survey level data layer would be of great benefit to help determining exactly which structures in or out of the flood zones. Greetings my name is John W. Veatch. I am a land planner, a professional land development engineer, professional land surveyor, Florida Re

Surveying

i am a surveyor ,i love survey because so many journeys......so many connections ...every day visiting new place,contacting new people,watching new culture..........etc....... ma ambition is improving my knowledge in diffrent type of  surveys and new technologies......i will do it frnds .i will do it.                           

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In the spirit of welcoming the new year, we are liquidating many items from the store to make room for new stuff! My son  Justin has been helping me get the store in order and putting a fresh face on ePalmetto. As you can see in our recent post for January Survey equipment Liquidation, there are many items on sale that you might like to grab while you can..

Survey Equipment Inventory Sale

Here is a short list of equipment we are selling from the closet:
(3) B-1 Levels
(1)SDR33 Data Collector
(1)Sa

Have you ever wondered why there are no movies about land surveying?

Think about it, we are constantly in the field, sometimes in unexplored areas, by definition we are the first ones in preparing the ground for everyone else, once the map of the area is ready.

We are constantly encountering dangers related to the places we work, be the jungle, the highway or the overpass.

When I saw the Indiana Jones' movies I could not imagine a more boring profession than archeology. These guys spend their lives

"There Should Be More Land Surveyor Action Figures and Toys", i thought to myself when my grandson asked me if I would get him a toy land surveyor for Christmas.It dawned on me that I had never actually seen a land surveyor toy in the wild.  I asked my son Justin to run a search and see what he could find and he dug up a stack of surveying related toys offered around the web that will truly amaze you. 

How about a Toy Clinometer for Kids

Oh, the excitement on Christmas Morn! "Mommy, I got the new

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The willingness to change and be educated is paramount. Staying humble enough to remember your knowledge has been shared by another, helps with the willingness and humility to give it away to a worthy hand.

Yes, this article is kind of bragging. It's also trying to let those of you who are in the professional services business (like Engineers, Land Surveyors, Attorneys, Accountants, Home Builders, Business Consultants, etc) know that this online marketing method works.

The below image is a screen capture from Google from October 4th, 2013 which shows a Google search results page for "alta survey alabama." This is a very lucrative keyword, as you know. A typical ALTA survey will bring in anywhere fr

I was reading the CourthouseDirect.com Blog entitled "New Article:  Why Public Records Matter:  The Hidden Value of Land Registry Systems"  and realized why many people may not understand land surveyors.  

It is because people are being misled as to the role and importance of the surveyor by people and companies that stand to make more profit without surveyors in the picture.  A medical doctor may joke and say "suture self", but a land surveyor who reads this blog may likewise say the same about

Something Typical In Surveyor Reporting

I thought that some of you might gain some insight by examining a typical Surveyor's Report generated for a project I am working on.

I have altered the particulars so as to protect the innocent. This is a draft copy, I am still working on it.

SURVEYOR’S REPORT

DISCUSSION

Land Surveyor has been provided copies of several surveys of properties adjoining the subject tract as well as a copy of a survey performed on the subject tract. In this Land Surveyor’s opi

Thank you for making "6 Miles With Courage" a success.

Sales are brisk and the reviews have been spectacular. One surveyor writes, "I wish my wife had read your book 10 years ago! Ever since she finished it she has had a whole new level of respect for my job." She gets up with me in the morning and packs my lunch and sees my off. She never done that before!"

And another surveyor writes, "My son and I have become a lot closer since he finished your book."

and another, " Your book has a had a positiv

Chain!

“About Horses and Water”

Written by Penn Cheyning RPLS
(This story is completely fictional, any resemblance to actual events is purely a coincidence).

I received a phone call about a boundary dispute in an area of the city I know fairly well. I had not performed a survey in this particular subdivision but had surveyed other tracts of land in adjoining subdivisions many times. I was fairly certain it would not pose much of a challenge although the description was for a couple of Lots and a fr