Got a new Phantom 3 Advanced yesterday. Got all the firmware updated and charged up and went on a maiden flight. Everything was good to go. Flew it this morning and was out behind our house and had flown about 5oo feet out or so....I lost it in the sun and couldn't see it on the phone screen either. Stepped in to the shade so I could get my bearings and just as I looked at the screen it hit a tree and the screen went dead. My heart sank. Got a bottle of water and started trudging up the hill. It was 103 degrees here today and I was spent by the time the on screen compass guided me to where it was at. It had hit the tree and apparently spun out of it and landed landing gear up. Total loss as far as I can tell. Camera and gimbal detached, wires torn out of connectors. Body cracked and warped. Gimbal broken. It was a fine machine the two times I flew it. So long $950. I still have my other quad so I can still fly....stupid rookie mistake.

Damn....
Sorry to hear, that sucks bro.

Oh Man!!
That is just horrible and I feel for you.  Just takes a momentary distraction/loss of visual to have a disaster like that.  The difference between a successful flight and a crash sometimes is razor thin.  Don't be too hard on yourself!!

Good luck in the future!!

When you lose sight and on-screen display, you should just remove your hands from the controls and let it hover until you recover one or the other.  Apparently, you kept flying when you lost sight.  Very sorry for the loss, but it is very predictable.

Damn that sucks! Sorry for your loss. U send for repair so that u can back to the air? next time if u lost signal just do nothing or return to home above 60 default is 30 that sometime bit to low.

Sorry for your crash, chadrob30. Feel free to contact our US service center in the business hour and send it in for fixing.Here is the contact information:

FI. Stanley Posted at 2016-7-25 23:50
Damn that sucks! Sorry for your loss. U send for repair so that u can back to the air? next time if  ...

With his description, I doubt there's much can be salvaged. The repair cost would most likely be higher than the replacement cost.

To OP,

Sorry for your loss, hope you learned the lesson, and will be trouble free flying your drone in the future.

DJI-Paladin Posted at 2016-7-26 01:11
Sorry for your crash, chadrob30. Feel free to contact our US service center in the business hour and ...

I have emailed support, thank you.

Sorry that really sucks. When the RC lost contact, did you keep your hands on the sticks? If so you most likely flew it into the tree yourself. Did you loose contact or just loose video? In the future let go of the sticks and let it just hover. Then move around or closer to its last point until the RC connects? I know...... Monday morning QB, but i have crashed my fair share. The fun part is fixing them them. I would order the broken parts and fix it. The time you spend repairing will make you a better and more careful pilot.