Phil Napper
From:
[ s 9(2)(a) ]
Sent:
Monday, 26 February 2024 11:15 AM
To:
Philip Napper
Subject:
RE: Notice of Significant Failure
Good morning Phil.
[ s 9(2)(a) ]
so when we secured the additional land, I offered to do the
survey at no cost.
I began the survey on August 15 2021 under the old SG’s rules. I’m not a day-to-day user of the GPS for surveying. I
planned, downloaded and uploaded the control I thought I’d find onto the data controller. 12D put -999 on the
heights of the marks, but the vectors I measured were not greatly out of position when compared to previously
measured vectors (considering the 2010 rules) (see attached reductions)
I had problems with the gear. Rawhitiroa Road is in a valley that drains to the Patea River. Aorere Road climbs a
ridgeline, so signal from the base station was restrained. I took a repeater, but it was flat, so I leapfrogged the
base. Being the weekend, (and no cellphone coverage) I couldn’t ask one of my technicians more familiar with the
gear for help – so I boxed on as best I could.
The BTW marks I closed onto were proud or flush, so I was able to walk onto them. When I did my reductions of the
observations, I achieved a 0.12m close with an RF of over 1:20,000.
Because this was a ‘free’ survey, I couldn’t afford to have my regular staff committing hours to assisting me with
reductions and QA that the survey deserved – I was boxing through the information in my spare time.
My methodology for definition was to hold the marks I found on Aorere Road, which defined the northern end of
the boundary I was connecting to.
The BTW marks I found at the reserve defined the southern end.
The adoption of the observations between the two ends didn’t close by about 4m along the ~45° bearing of the line
between the two.
under the Official Information Act 1982
The perpendicular original boundaries also didn’t close (but in a different bearing to the 45° misclose above), but my
work did, so I surveyed my boundaries and joined onto an adopted corner position along this 45° line.
I uploaded the data into Landonline, making sure I wrote the survey report while it was fresh and set it aside.
And then the rules changed, and I lost it all.
Released
I rewrote the report and redid the captured, but I was still somewhat unfamiliar with the new rules when I lodged
the survey.
I submitted what I thought was a fieldnote (handwritten observations along with finders) as required by the new
rules, but had to instead go back to my raw data and prepare one that was (I got a graduate to do it in the end)
I adopted through old traverses correctly, but under the new rules, the miscloses had to be addressed.
I was not comfortable recalculating traversed lines – to me, that loses weight to measurement, so I had to apply for
dispensation for a Class C boundary.
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To get rid of the 4m, I did the following;
from Aorere Road, I did a hanging traverse along the observed boundary.
I did the same from the unmarked BTW location,
I pegged the \hanging positions and recalculated the vector in between.
How 4m is missing along adoptions to mark NB is baffling – but now the 4m is resolved.
To answer your question, “mitigating circumstances or lessons you’ve learned from it?” trying to fit a Class B
surveying into a rugged hill country underlying survey proved difficult.
The lesson I learned is that a free survey needs rigorous processing and independent reviews, which is standard
procedure for other ‘paying’ jobs that I lodge.
This job rapidly taught me how to apply the new accuracy standards of each vector in a survey so I can isolate a
vector that doesn’t meet the required accuracies and investigate any error.
My thanks to Lloyd for guiding me through the new rules for this transitory survey.
Regards
[ s 9(2)(a) ]
From: Philip Napper <[email address]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2024 12:16 PM
under the Official Information Act 1982
To: [ s 9(2)(a) ]
Subject: Notice of Significant Failure
Hello [ s
Please re
9(2) fer to the attached letter from the Board. I look forward to your response before 22 March.
Thank-you Released
Phil
Phil Napper
Secretary, Cadastral Surveyors Licensing Board of NZ
PO Box 1208 Wellington 6140
email: [email address] Ph [ s 9(2)(a) ]
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