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Bluebook a new monument
Posted by Grant-Brady on January 17, 2012 at 4:05 pmWe are ask to provide a proposal to a local contractor for setting a new control monument at a local airport. The monument and data must meet “bluebook” requirements.
WE have looked at this link http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/INFO/incorp_data.shtml: so far.
Any tips from those who have completed a similar project would be appreciated.
Thanks
GrantGrant-Brady replied 12 years, 4 months ago 6 Members · 7 Replies- 7 Replies
Are you Bluebooking a PACS or SACS? These are affiliated with the AGIS at the Airport (https://airports-gis.faa.gov/public/). If they are PACS/SACS you will need to follow the Advisory Circular found here. (http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/AERO/AirportsGIS/AC16/index.shtml)
For the PACS/SACS you will need to use, PAGE-NT to process you GPS information and then run the multiple observations through Adjust. Some of the programs can be found here http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PC_PROD/pc_prod.shtml
Page-NT is from an FTP site listed in the Advisory CircularIf you are on Bluebooking a random control point you can follow the information from the NGS website. You will still need to use Geodetic Software from the NGS.
Get money, get money, twice as much as you think… It will be twice as hard as you think
If you don’t plan to bluebook many projects, I’d suggest subbing out the processing and/or adjustment to someone familiar with the bluebook process — the learning curve is pretty steep for a one-off job. I’ve undertaken 7 bluebook projects since 1999, and I’ve been happy to go the sub route for all of them.
Note that processing with PAGES is technically required, but can be waived. On the bluebook job I did last year, NGS accepted the g-file produced by TGO.
I’m still pretty unfamiliar with TBC, but I don’t think it has a bluebook export utility. I’m sure all the information can be teased out of it, but it might be more work to get at the required data than was the case with TGO.
I’ve been using TBC for 9 months and have not found the G-file & B-file export on TBC like TGO. While PAGES may be waived for bluebooking, I believe if he is doing PACS/SACS he has to follow FAA protocol which requires using PAGES.
Howdy,
I’d look at this page http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/FGCS/BlueBook/pdf/Annex_L.pdf
Note the requirement for pre-approval of a project plan. It is almost invariably a mistake to do the observations first then thnk about blue booking it. The process is intended to feed data into a database containing more than just coordinates.
I agree that the process is cumbersome and not worth the effort if it is a one time only effort. Even if you are able to create an acceptable GPS vector file (G-file) using a tool other than PAGE-NT, you must also create FGCS-compliant B (observation meta-data) and D (description) files. A number of other files must be created for use with the NGS adjustment tool (ADJUST).
There is a good set of guidelines for using ADJUST linked at the software download site.
I like the NGS approach but may be biased. It is definitely NOT black box.
Good luck,
DMM
I’ve done a couple of Bluebook projects in past years. Not an easy task, but both projects involved more than 100 monuments (one was 350+). I would not consider anything much smaller than that.
Thank you for the replies.
The responses I have received confirmed to me we
should sub this out to someone with the area of expertise.
The contractor is still unsure of the exact requirements other than “Bluebook”.
The existing monument that will be destroyed during the new construction is a “HARN” classification.Grant
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