Culvert Survey & A Big Hill!

A beautiful day today. Weather wise that is. Glorious sunshine and a trip to Liskard. Drove the Merc Sprinter and went in to my first Traffic Management absolutely fine. Carried the tractor (very heavy and it took 2 of us) in to the culvert and surveyed 130m of lined pipe. Job done. What I forgot to mention was to get to the the culvert we had to drop down a very steep, very muddy slope, about 100m. Getting down was easy just using the brakes. Coming back up was another matter!

Tried to take a run-up at the hill to start with. Got a quarter way up and started sliding back. eventually decide to come back down and wait for a tow. Something we had been told could happen. The guys came down in their land-rover and we hooked up and they started our trip upwards. Time after time, the engine would cut-out or the wheels would spin too much. In the end we actually started pulling the land rover back down with us. At this stage I managed to slip the one side in to a ditch. Missed the fence so drove back OK. Or so I thought!

One of the guys in the land-rover shouted you have a puncture, so we got out and listened to the sound of hissing. So a puncture isn't a great thing to have but with 3 grown men in the van it should be sortable. We first checked we had a spare. Yes! However, it is underneath the van so I had to reverse back and hang the back end out over a mud cliff. Very precarious. It was at this stage we discovered we had a jack but no wheel brace. To get the spare wheel out we needed a wheel brace. At this stage there were some suitable words being spoken about the situation. Our only route was to ask the other company if they had one. Nope!! Good reply.

I then managed to get a lift in to Liskard looking for Halfords. There's no Halfords. There's no shop that sells such a thing as spanners. However, there was an ATS so after a quick chat and a bit of charm I managed to borrow a brace. After a quick drive back, got the spare wheel out and the flat type off. Spare straight on and set to go again. This time we used a lorry winch to get us up the hill. Worked a treat. Should of used this the first time around rather than a tiny land-rover. Unbelievable.

After a quick trip into Liskard to drop off the brace, oh and get some air in our tyre we finally drove back to Taunton. Thank you Liskard ATS for a wonderful service. I think you saved us being stuck in a culvert for an eternity.

Well if all days are like this, it will certainly be an interesting job!!!

Training

Did some training for two new GPS users today. Went well I think. Well, they could switch it on after the training. lol. Off to Liskeard tomorrow to do some culvert cleaning. I am the hired help so no surveying. Hopefully won't get too dirty. In the middle of downloading Battlefield 3 so cant wait to play. HA HA!

Battlefield 3 is coming

Finished processing of two jobs today. Very pleased as I was worrying about merging the GIS data into HA format. All went swimmingly.

Week in the office this week and training some users tomorrow in using the ProMark 200.

On another note, really looking forward to Battlefield 3 beta due very soon. Take a look below. Simply amazing.

Battlefield 3 Teaser!! Yummy.

Nice Weekend

It's been a good weekend with Ashley here. Enjoyed the rugby yesterday. Bitterly disappointed the Welsh game is not until tomorrow. Will have to listen on the radio on the way to Taunton.

Busy week ahead in the office processing jobs and planning for HA connectivity training. Will keep you posted.

Well what a good day!!

Did the GPS survey job near Okehampton. Went very well which was a surprise. Starting to really understand the drainage systems. It was a surprise how much drainage was there for a small services.

Had a few issues with the ProMark 200. It kept losing signal so I eventually switched to the internal antenna to take advantage of the Glonass option. Was obtaining about 40mm accuracy which was fine for this job.

Lots of walking in the undergrowth today which is a bit a surprise. Mind you I am kitted for it so bring it on. Processing tomorrow and going home to see Nicky. Yipeeee.

Exeter Tomorrow

Off to Exeter services for some surveying tomorrow. Last night got a few catch pit's done. Getting to grips with the surveying now.

Played tennis yesterday with some of the lads from work. Having worked from home for the past 7 years this is very new. Had a very good game and we won so all is good.

Looking forward to going home on Thursday night this week. Mind you back to Wales on Friday to see my parents and pick-up Ash. It's all go at the moment.

Two today as I have re-posted this on FB. Just love it:

Survey End - for a while!

So, I have finished the M5 survey for the time being.Another guy taking over for the last stretch tomorrow night. Will need to get ready for the processing. Going to be a lot to do.

I really do like the Ashtech Promark 200. Even though 3 months ago I was selling it, that didn't mean to say I had ever used it in anger. Now I have, I find it very quick, it holds its connection to Topnet very well and the battery life is great.

The Digiterra software is also excellent for recording lots of asset data. Also the fact we can work directly in shp files is excellent. I much prefer this software to ArcPad which I find just plain irritating.

Right, off to get some sleep.

GPS Survey M5

Good week done. On Thursday night did my first solo GPS survey. Went very well apart from license to OSNET expiring. This has been renewed ready for Sunday night. Still did the survey but with a accuracy of 0.35m. Pdop was good all night.

Was using the Ashtech ProMark 200 and it worked well. I don't like the screen protector as it means you have to press harder on the screen. However, this is essential as the screen does mark badly with repeated button presses. The navigation buttons on the handheld are a superb facility, expecially when doing line work.

Ready for my first ever Sunday night working. Only 800m left to do.

M5 Survey - DONE!

Went on the M5 to finish the survey today. Only had a crash cushion so 3 lanes of live traffic which was a bit heart stopping for a while. A little GPS work and some more CCTV.

Now for the office tomorrow to do the processing and get the data to the Highways Agency. All good fun. Huge learning curve at the moment.

Normal Day

Normal day in the office today. Had to re-encode Wincan 8 data into Wincan 7. Bit of a pain but done now. Off on to the M5 in the day tomorrow. Should be interesting but we will complete the job. Wish me luck and safety!

M5 Surveying

Finished my first week of nights. Did 600m on Thursday so only had to leave 100m. Found the connectivity GPS survey hard because I am still not sure what I am looking at. This will change but I will need to do some specification reading over the weekend. Digiterra is great for the survey and the templates have been set-up well to allow very easy data input. Back in the office next week to do the processing.

M5 Surveying Update

Third night on the northbound M5 has finished early. Traffic Management would not allow us on to the North side so a busy night ahead tomorrow. Learning lots of new skills and the crew I am working with all seem good lads.

Want to get through a lot of GPS surveying tomorrow so spotting the different drainage types is going to be my main issues. Fingers crossed it goes well.

1st Night Surveying on Motorway

Phew! Survived my first night on the motorway. Was on the M5 and it went well. Was using the Topcon GRS-1 with Digiterra to pick-up drainage. Worked well especially as the rain came down very hard.

Working on the motorway is something else. With no speed limit in place, the vehicles thunder by. Mind you, you just get on with it and crack on. Out tonight for another few hundred metres.

Good Day - CCTV Survey

Good day today. Nearly finished my mammoth CCTV review. Had some issues converting MPG-4 videos. Seems to be harder than I thought. Anyone have any ideas?