Remote-controlled helicopters are coming to the farm, and not just for filming backyard hockey games
It’s the good old hockey game with a bird’s eye view.
Standard grain farmer Jay Schultz has carved out his own little slice of hockey history by filming a Boxing Day shinny game in nearby Rosebud with a remote-controlled helicopter.
In the video, the small DJI Phantom helicopter equipped with a GoPro — the lightweight camera skiers and other sports enthusiasts strap to their helmets — swoops along ice level, and dips and pivots as it soars skyward as Stompin’ Tom Connors belts out his beloved classic, “The Hockey Song.”
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“I don’t have a first-person view, so I couldn’t really tell what I was filming. It was all luck,” said Schultz.
Schultz, who started using his GoPro earlier this year to make videos, added the user-friendly DJI Phantom to his Christmas wish list after someone from Twitter posted an aerial video of a harvest scene using a drone and a video camera.
So far, it’s been mostly smooth sailing for Schultz and his $500 ’copter.
“I haven’t had any major crashes since the first or second time I flew it.”
The Boxing Day hockey game was actually flight No. 3 and the first time he attached his GoPro to it. It worked out great, he said.
“It’s such a really cool match there, especially with the first-person view,” he said.
He’s already ordered some upgrades, including a camera stabilization system and a first-person viewer that will allow him to see what he’s filming.
Drones have a lot of farmers talking about a new era in agriculture, but it’s not arrived yet. Some are in use in the Lethbridge area for crop mapping and scouting, and they’re popular on some big farms in Australia where ranchers use them to monitor their herds. Some producers are also using the technology to scout their fields or check pivots.
But the, ahem, buzz around drones centres around how they could be used with emerging precision ag technology, such as using infrared imaging to monitor the health of crops or even spot spraying of weeds in parts of a field.
“I think this is the future,” said Schultz. “You’ll probably be seeing this a lot more with how good the technology is. I don’t see why everyone shouldn’t have one.
“Wherever your imagination can take you is your limit.”
To see Schultz’s video, go to www.youtube.com and enter ‘Holiday Hockey in Rosebud’ or scan the photo accompanying this article with a smartphone equipped with the Layar app (see instructions below).
