My first crash was an old .40 trainer, on it's maiden flight. Being a newbie at the time, and self taught, there were many things that I didn't think about ahead of time. The most important thing being to recharge the rx battery after a day of taxiing and adjusting.
I went out by myself to a construction site to fly, using a crappy old Cirrus AM radio that I got REAL cheap with the plane. Took her down the runway (road through the field), and she lifted off nicely. I started a gentle left bank to circle around, and the radio lost contact at about 50-60' out. The plane stayed in that nice gentle bank until it wing tipped the ground and cartwheeled into splinters.
I always make sure to charge the rx battery the night before every flight, just to be sure.