You will need a box/tea-chest, a drawing board, paper, pens, pencil and a ruler.

To carry out the survey, you must first estimate the main dimensions of the field and fix a scale to suit the drawing (e.g. if the field is 100m square, and the paper 40 cm square, the maximum scale would be 1 cm:3m, leaving room for a 5 cm margin all round.)

Next, decide on the position of two sighting points near the centre of the area and measure the distance between them accurately. Mark point "A" on your paper with a pin. Set up your Plane Table at point "A", and take sight with a second pin on point "B". With a ruler draw a line from the first pin through the second pin and mark off datum line to scale, thus fixing the actual position of point "B" on the drawing paper.

Now without moving the drawing board, take sights on other features (tents, trees, gate, etc.), moving a second pin to give you an accurate reading, and noting down the names of features. With a ruler draw lines from point "A" through the pin-pricks.

When all features have been plotted from point "A", move plane table to point "B" and take sights from there, starting by take a sight along the datum line to point "A".

Where the sighting lines cross is the position of each feature.



Later you could elaborate your drawing and rub out the pencil lines and rough notes, or, better still, transfer the pinpricks to a clean sheet of drawing paper and make a finished drawing in greater detail.

A plane-table survey plan of the summer campsite, framed in natural wood grown on the spot, would make a novel wall-decoration for the patrol corner or den, and should be good for a lot of points in any patrol competition.

Note that in carrying out this plane-table survey, you have applied the principle of triangulation, which is the basis of all mapmaking and cartography.