Cave-Surveying Digest, Vol 12, Issue 1

[Wookey]

On 2008-07-15 14:23 +0000, Pat Kambesis wrote:


> Regardless of which types of instruments are used (digital vs
> analog), the biggest limitation on the survey is the speed (or rather
> efficiency) of the sketcher.

Agreed. On two man trips I find it improves matters overall as the
sketcher spends _much_ less time indicating station positions, and
thus more time sketching (it is usally hard to do both at once).

> "Eyeballing" a very long shot in terms of making the
> sketch i.e. no distance reference, is very difficult with shots that
> are much longer than 30 meters - one can't "eye" estimate where to
> place passage/wall details with much accuracy with distances greater
> than 15 meters (my personal experience).

Agreed. I was once on a trip where people had got to use a disto for
the 1st time _and_ had found huge passage so were taking great glee in
70m legs. It made for pretty crummy sketches (and me getting left far
enough behind that I had only a vague idea where the stations were).
Not ideal.

On the other hand an assistant who actually cares can be really useful
and you can get accurate distances to walls, big rocks, roofs etc in moments
which is a huge boon when sketching big stuff.

Wookey
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