I just got back from my first flight. Glad I didn't have prop guards. OK. The background is my wife wanted the Phantom, not me. I have a Gopro 3 though so I'm like ok whatever. We live in the desert so it's not like I could not have driven 10 minutes and had 50 square miles of treeless terrain. No, we go to the park with trees up the street. Everything goes perfectly, the compass orientation etc. We each have a couple of flights. She landed it hard one time and I had to clean some grass off the props. Then, after the first battery dies, I get carried away and fly it into a tree. The Phantom falls into a tangle of blackberry vines which proceed to rip me and stick in my *** as I fight my way to the Phantom, while my wife (not inappropriately) laughs her *** off. Had I been flying with prop guards I'm pretty sure it would still be stuck 20 feet up in either the tree or the vines. Amazingly there was no apparent damage. It flies just fine. I'm willing to pay for new props. And learn about the LOC thing.