Last night I was taking some great pics of my neighborhood when I was bringing my mini 3 in with autoreturn when it started to throw errors when it was maybe 100' overhead.  It then started to dive down to the left and crashed into a neighbors tree.  It was just starting to get dark and I had 10 minutes of battery left.  I was able to locate it with the finder and got a visual on it with the flashing lights and beeps so I know where it was.  It was too high to throw anything up to the branch and try and shake down.  This AM I can't get a visual on it.  Its a big tree in the neighbors pasture and they have not seen it on the ground (it would be impossible to miss) so I have to assume its still in the tree.  Most of the day weve had decent wind with gusts up to 12mph but it has not helped yet.  I used binoculars and had a couple people look with me but none of us laid eyes on it.  I do have care refresh with flyaway but know as soon as I pull the trigger on it the drone will get blown down.  
I want my drone down!  Any suggestions on finding it deep in branches and then getting it down?

Thanks-

Sam

Shake the tree?

I was bringing my mini 3 in with autoreturn when it started to throw errors when it was maybe 100' overhead.  It then started to dive down to the left and crashed into a neighbors tree.
Can't help much to find the drone, but if you post your flight data, it might help explain what actually happened so that similar incidents could be avoided.

Go to: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
... where you'll find instructions to upload the data to that site and it will give a report
For help interpreting the data you can post a link for the report here.
Or just post the .txt file.

Depending on the nature of the crash, it might let you know what height to look.

Sorry to hear about the crash, and I don't have any suggestions.  I will say this: I've concentrated on learning to fly, and deliberately ignored all of the automatic features.  That means I've landed both my drones every single time manually.  In fact, one day that's all I did, take off, land, take off, land, until I could get good enough to spot-land the thing easily. Then, I threw complications in, like taking off under trees and maneuvering around them into clear sky, then landing down through the same tree cover, or flying between trees and branches with avoidance off.   Now, after time has gone by, I'm trying out some of the automatic features, and guess what? They're pretty good.  But I can also fly a POI shot manually, and it turns out that's a useful skill.  I think if I didn't force myself to do all manual moves first, I might never have gotten good at it.  Lots of things can go wrong when letting the software fly for you.  If you have a good skill set, that's actually more reliable.  What this has done for me is, I have many hours logged, and not a single crash, only one rather rickety landing (tried a hand-grab on a moving boat with lots of wind, landed it, but not well).

When you get your drone back, or replaced, try a manual fly only for a while.

Fall is here... you can wait for the leaves to fall off tree. But I would post flight data like Labroides said to maybe figure out elevation in tree. Good Luck

Drones can be very difficult to spot in a tree is they are not switched on, my eyes have been less than arm's length from a Mavic Mini and I couldn't spot it and that was in daylight. The only way I found it was to get the end of a broom shaft in the field of view of its camera and then move the broom shaft towards the camera. The drone was caught in a branch fork and all but invisible.
On the other hand a live Mavic Mini, with flashing lights, was, at night, quickly rescued with the aid of a ladder.

Good luck with your hunt.

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out and we're deeply sorry for the incident that happened to your unit. In this case, we strongly recommend you to contact our team at https://www.dji.com/support to open up a flyaway case. They will provide you with further details about this case once it is open. Thank you for your valued support.

djiuser_O1QeSJm12wK7 Posted at 9-26 15:12
Sorry to hear about the crash, and I don't have any suggestions.  I will say this: I've concentrated on learning to fly, and deliberately ignored all of the automatic features.  That means I've landed both my drones every single time manually.  In fact, one day that's all I did, take off, land, take off, land, until I could get good enough to spot-land the thing easily. Then, I threw complications in, like taking off under trees and maneuvering around them into clear sky, then landing down through the same tree cover, or flying between trees and branches with avoidance off.   Now, after time has gone by, I'm trying out some of the automatic features, and guess what? They're pretty good.  But I can also fly a POI shot manually, and it turns out that's a useful skill.  I think if I didn't force myself to do all manual moves first, I might never have gotten good at it.  Lots of things can go wrong when letting the software fly for you.  If you have a good skill set, that's actually more reliable.  What this has done for me is, I have many hours logged, and not a single crash, only one rather rickety landing (tried a hand-grab on a moving boat with lots of wind, landed it, but not well).

When you get your drone back, or replaced, try a manual fly only for a while.

Great advice! One of the best things I did as a noob drone pilot was focus on flying before video and it has paid off in a few cases.

Ow.... drastic measures, dirty bird.

But what a nightmare!

I think I would go into the neighbor's yard (do you have a good relation with them?) with some kind of long pole with a gopro on it, connected to my phone.
Perhaps you may be able to spot it viewing at a different angle?

If you know which tree the drone is in, you can try what I had to do. Hired a crane and went up 18m in the birch tree and found it. It was not cheap but much cheaper than purchasing a new drone.

I was very lucky, only one blade was cut and had to be replaced. I took it flying very carefully next day and tried all functions and it all worked fine.

SpectreOne Posted at 9-27 08:14
Great advice! One of the best things I did as a noob drone pilot was focus on flying before video and it has paid off in a few cases.

This is my first fancy drone with any decent features.  I’ve been flying rc planes and drones for way too many years than I want to admit.  I’m no pro racer but can fly better than most.  This was just a routine bring it home when it locked up.

I appreciate all of the suggestions.  Our neighbor is great and they have let us use their pasture for our animal for a few years.  It was too high in the tree for ladders, poles or my throwing ability.  After the initial crash I can’t even see it anymore.
I filed a flyaway claim and the replacement is in its way.  I really don’t know what I could have done different.  I’ve checked the flight record and the last minute was full of error reports that did not really match what I was seeing/experiencing.  Errors included obstructions detected, high wind, low visibility, attitude error, high gimbal vibration and rotation blockage.  All occurred with drone fully visible in open air space before it went on its crash path.

fansfb3cdeb9 Posted at 9-30 06:02
This is my first fancy drone with any decent features.  I’ve been flying rc planes and drones for way too many years than I want to admit.  I’m no pro racer but can fly better than most.  This was just a routine bring it home when it locked up.

I appreciate all of the suggestions.  Our neighbor is great and they have let us use their pasture for our animal for a few years.  It was too high in the tree for ladders, poles or my throwing ability.  After the initial crash I can’t even see it anymore.

I’ve checked the flight record and the last minute was full of error reports that did not really match what I was seeing/experiencing.  Errors included  ...
If you posted your flight data, you could get help from members with experience reading flight data, and probably identify the cause of the incident.

fansfb3cdeb9 Posted at 9-30 06:02
This is my first fancy drone with any decent features.  I’ve been flying rc planes and drones for way too many years than I want to admit.  I’m no pro racer but can fly better than most.  This was just a routine bring it home when it locked up.

I appreciate all of the suggestions.  Our neighbor is great and they have let us use their pasture for our animal for a few years.  It was too high in the tree for ladders, poles or my throwing ability.  After the initial crash I can’t even see it anymore.

Sounds like it may have hit a bird, if it was the UK then i would have said bat or owl perhaps.

Its all guessing until you actually post the flightlog so that someone can explain to you what did go wrong.