Tag Archives: Field Notes
Advice to Younger Surveyors
by Michael R. Johnson PLS xyHt editor’s note: The surveying profession is blessed to have gifted storytellers in our midst, though we need more. One, known as “Uncle Paden” on the RPLSToday.com surveying forum, is Michael R. Johnson. A surveyor in Oklahoma, Johnson regularly regales readers with tales past and present of surveying, observations of...
The HP-41C: A Legend Is Born
Because I tend to reminisce in my Field Notes installments from time to time, it seems fitting to include the computing workhorse of my generation, the Hewlett-Packard 41C series. It carried me through the most developmental stage of my career and will remain my favorite calculator of all time. The first HP-41C was introduced in 1979 as the first...
The “Ah Ha” Moments, Part 2
Last month I wrote of two “Ah Ha” moments early in my career: situations where the “light came on” from a surveying experience, even if the value of the moment wasn’t fully understood at the time. In this issue, I share a couple more: where a practical application cemented abstract concepts and where a lack...
The “Ah Ha” Moments
I can’t speak about other professional career paths, but I can certainly attest to land surveying after more than 40 years of “practicing” the art and science. There truly has been an opportunity to learn something new almost every day of those 40-plus years (unless I interfered). From the fundamental basics like stocking the survey...
2019 Geospatial Summit
You Can’t Beat the Price of Admission As the march towards the new reference frame and datum rolls on approaching 2022, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) continues to ramp up its outreach efforts to get us users prepared with the 2019 Geospatial Summit. They have hosted prior geospatial summits in 2010, 2015, and 2017, all...
Field to Finish – The Career Continuum
First, I would like to thank Anthony Whitlock for his excellent contribution to Field Notes last month. It was thought-provoking and stimulated much conversation. It even motivated me to start doing research, specifically on the impacts, or perceived impacts, of the implementation of degree requirements (which are complex in many cases) to sit for state-specific...
