In the past, Lang says he used conventional traverse surveying methods to map wells — a lengthy, time-consuming process. That all changed for him with the advent of GPS.

“Early on, I began to see the benefits that GPS could offer,” he says. “So, about ten years ago, I spoke to my equipment supplier, Roy Boyd from Boyd Instrument & Supply, and made the switch — first leasing equipment, then, about five years later, purchasing my own. I’d been using Topcon’s Legacy E receivers for the last several years, but recently upgraded to a Topcon GR-3 GPS+ receiver. It wouldn’t be overstating the case to say GPS has revolutionized our business.”

The advantages of GPS in his line of work center around speed, accuracy and reliability. He says nailing down property corners, tying in to old wells, etc., is easily three times as fast. “Utilizing GPS allows us to get a lot of work done in a much shorter period of time — without forsaking quality,” he says. “And that makes everyone happy.”

Roughly 20 miles south of Lang’s location, Mike Aimonetti is seeing an equally heavy workload driven by oil and gas customers. As owner of Sylvan Surveys, Inc., he specializes in doing well plats and preparing applications for his customers. He says he really appreciates the reliability of his Topcon equipment.

“Though we try to do a lot of our GPS work either in spring before leaf-out or in the fall when leaves have fallen, even in heavily wooded areas, the Topcon HiPer Lite+ receiver holds its signal lock better than any other equipment I’ve ever used.”

The increase in drilling activity over the last couple years has placed some serious workload demands on Aimonetti — demands, he says, that he could not possibly meet without GNSS receivers and data collectors.

“On a single day last week — working alone — I did eight wells using the Topcon system. In years gone by, using a traditional approach, it would have taken me up to a week to do a single well. It’s that much quicker.”