How many feet per hour for surveying?

[Chris Chenier]

As mentioned by others, survey speed depends a lot on the cave and the team. I was leading a project that lasted several years where we'd average anywhere between 5m and 25m per hour. The average shot length for the entire project was about 2.5m... for some 1600m of cave... It will be a while before I undertake another project like this. In other instances, I've surveyed 1km in a day (many 30m shots), so probably some 150m-200m per hour at the peak. (Ironically, the 5m per hour performance was not sketched to scale, whereas the 200m per hour was!)

Pat mentions many points to improve efficiency; that's probably the most important factor, given a particular cave. It's amazing how much time can be wasted when one is not efficient. Every second does count. I find that getting someone to do just cross-sections (and perhaps profile) helps greatly; especially if using digital instruments as otherwise instrument person(s) get way too much free time. I also find that any team of more than 2 people is useless if going digital.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to "defend" some Canadians... out east, where there is much less new passages discovered each year compared to the Rockies or Vancouver Island, we tend to sketch to scale and with more precision than what Rob describes. I guess we want to make our shorter caves last longer! (But my 200m per hour sketches in Mexico don't contain too much detail, so we're even.)

My sketching speed did not improve when I started using Auriga years ago, but that's only because I used to not sketch to scale, not wanting to bother with a protractor. Accuracy, on the other hand, took quite a leap! The few times that I've had to survey (to scale now) without Auriga since have been torture... slow torture! So, the use of Auriga and digital instruments will also have an effect on survey speed.

Good luck with your new project.

Chris

[George Dasher]

There are too too many variables to predict surveying speed.

Novices on trip, maze cave, difficult passages, fogged or muddy instruments, sketcher with diarrhea...

You get the picture...

[Lava]

If I'm on a 3-person team that is experienced and efficient (where I don't have to tell them what to do, they know how to run an efficient survey line and they don't make me wait while they are marking stations)...

My problem is the survey team is always waiting on ME. It is very difficult for me not to feel rushed or pressured when sketching. But I always turn over a high-quality product in the end.

having the book set up such that I don't have to constantly be flipping through pages (rubber bands on both sides of notebook to keep active pages handy)

That's a good one - I've been using a 3-hole removeable ruler/separator that comes with all mini- day planners. Speaking of that, one thing I like to do (an innovation shared with me by Doug Warner) is to use a day planner to hold everything. I keep a couple of pencils, protractor & ruler, a little compass to see general direction trends quickly, and a survey station light if I'm on a small team. You can just zip the whole thing up when moving between stations and it will unzip right back to the correct page, super easy:

keeping the protractor attached to the book so its always handy and never gets lost or misplaced

Totally - tethered with metal core/plastic coated beading wire. Also, I use the 360 degree protractors. I cannot be bothered to do any more math than I have to.

[Pat Kambesis]

Bruce,

You can improve the efficiency of your sketching (and in the long run your speed), by simplifying your survey kit -you've got too many doodads to manage. Loose the 360 degree protractor and learn this handy trick - for all survey shots between 0 and 179, subtract 20 feet and add 200. For shots between 180-360 - add 20 feet and subtract 200. This barely qualifies as significant math and once you got it down you can check backsites in a fraction of a second. Using a 360 and a ruler takes more time than using the half round protactor with scale - as long as you have the protractor "in your head" it doesn't matter if its half, quarter, backwards or upside down. Putting your survey book away between shots is totally unnecessary and a waste of time unless there is a significant obstable that requires both hands. If you're walking the survey line then the sketching process is continuous and its counterproductive to put book away. If you find yourself helping the survey team because you have an extra station light then thats a distraction to you and you loose more time. A few seconds here add up to minutes and distract you from the sketch.

Of course, if the only opporutnity your survey teams has to read War and Peace is while your sketching then its probably not important to try and improve your efficiency.

pk

[Squirrel Girl]

Dang, Bruce. That notebook looks clean and bright and fresh. And organized! Have you actually used it in a cave?


I have a vaguely similar, but way less photogenic, book. I've been using it for my entrance and surface work a lot lately. I like the pencil holders on the left, but then it's hard to write on the backside pages until a stack of sheets lie there.

[Jeff Bartlett]

Of course, if the only opporutnity your survey teams has to read War and Peace is while your sketching then its probably not important to try and improve your efficiency.

i'm on page 675!

in all seriousness, i do kinda like the "day planner" approach, it's like combining the survey book and a case to put it in. although i think i'll try a less-doodad approach as suggested (i've started just using the protractor marked in the middle of the scale, which is indeed faster and quite difficult to blunder).

[George Dasher]

Here's a sample of my notes and sketching.

Back when I was carbide and could sketch good.

[Lava]

Bruce,

You can improve the efficiency of your sketching (and in the long run your speed), by simplifying your survey kit -you've got too many doodads to manage. Loose the 360 degree protractor and learn this handy trick - for all survey shots between 0 and 179, subtract 20 feet and add 200. For shots between 180-360 - add 20 feet and subtract 200. This barely qualifies as significant math and once you got it down you can check backsites in a fraction of a second. Using a 360 and a ruler takes more time than using the half round protactor with scale - as long as you have the protractor "in your head" it doesn't matter if its half, quarter, backwards or upside down. Putting your survey book away between shots is totally unnecessary and a waste of time unless there is a significant obstable that requires both hands. If you're walking the survey line then the sketching process is continuous and its counterproductive to put book away. If you find yourself helping the survey team because you have an extra station light then thats a distraction to you and you loose more time. A few seconds here add up to minutes and distract you from the sketch.

Of course, if the only opporutnity your survey teams has to read War and Peace is while your sketching then its probably not important to try and improve your efficiency.

pk

Thanks for the hints Pat. I always do the 200+/-20 thing with backsights. The 360 protractor is what I've always used since the first time I ever sketched (in Mammoth with you!), I've never even tried to use a half-round protractor. I have also never considered that the 360 might be slowing me down. I will give the half-round a try. Do you have one in particular you recommend?

I have always had a love/hate relationship with sketching. Being a sketcher has always gotten me into places I otherwise might not have been able to go. I take a lot of pride in my sketches, and I love seeing the final result if I've done a particularly good one. However, the rushed feeling I nearly always have during sketching is very annoying and take some of the joy out of it. However, I may be imagining some of it because survey totals on my teams are usually fairly average (although usually not ridiculously large, either). I think what happens is a direct right brain/left brain conflict - my art school background fighting with my data taking side. Every time I look at my sketch there is always more I want to include and things I think I could have drawn better, and I'm trying to reconcile this with the (correct) notion that if it's accurate and readable and a good map can be made from it, then it's good. But there is a big part of me that just cannot handle it if I have not turned in something that is not only accurate and readable, but also beautiful! Know what I mean?

Barbara - that book has been used for a week in Lechuguilla! You just can't see it in the pic (and I did wipe it down afterwards).

[Jeff Bartlett]

Here's a sample of my notes and sketching.

This almost calls for its own thread - examples of different sketchers working at different paces!

[Pat Kambesis]

To Bruce:

I know you're tortured by the "art" thing - I could see that when you were learning to sketch. So, if you must make a "thing of beauty" then make the map - where you have all the time you need in comfortable conditions.

On George's sketches - you should see his maps - he can cram more information on a map than anyone else in the universe!

pk