Very disappointed to hear that Litch does not actually allow fully autonomous missions with DJI MA2 (or any of that newer era of DJI drones designed for the DJI Fly app). I just purchase Litchi thinking I would be able to run “out of Radio range” missions, but clearly this is not possible. This should be made clear in the marketing info for this range of drones.
It is not Litchi that is not “allowing” fully autonomous missions. It is DJI who is not supporting onboard waypoints in their more recent drones.
The newer DJI drones no longer support uploading waypoint missions to the drone. As a result, a mission cannot be flown autonomously. Instead, companies like Litchi have no choice but to use a different (virtual stick) method to accomplish a waypoint mission where the controller and drone must be in constant communication throughout the mission. If the signal is lost, the drone will respond to whatever you have chosen for the “lost signal” setting.
Litchi is doing the best that they can to support waypoint missions on these newer drones but are limited to what DJI supports.
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Litchi can only work with what DJI deigns to give them. Currently many, many MA2 owners are petitioning DJI to allow uploadable (or onboard) waypoints as a basic human right. It may end up in the Haig. Crimes against dronality. Etc.
I suggest you do as many of us have done and visit the DJI forums and voice your disappointment.
Of course, the DJI moderator automatons will respond with a thank you and a promise to mention it to their engineers/developers whilst giggling quietly at all of us MA2 suckers who will no doubt have to purchase the next iteration of drone for this feature…which will have Waypoints but probably be missing another fundamental and useful operation which will be promised in the following iteration.
And on it will go and always be. DJI giveth and DJI taketh away.
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Thanks for your responses. Yeah, I understand that it’s a DJI issue, not a Litchi one. I was probably a bit too keen to get my hands on Litchi as I’ve never used it before and when I saw that it supported the MA2 I pressed the buy button immediately . For this reason I probably missed the subtlety regarding the issue of these model drones not being able to simply load the mission and fly fully autonomously. Perhaps Litchi should make this crystal clear in their update/info literature. I may have missed it of course 
So just for my interest, if I were able to purchase an older model (or a secondhand) DJI drone that has this autonomous ability, which model range would I need to go back to ?
However, I still like the overall feel of the Litchi App and the setting up of the Missions is very slick and the Mission hub plus Google Earth Pro seem to compliment the experience well.
The Mavic2pro & Mavic2zoom were the last drones that support real autonomous flight.
So all Phantoms, Spark, Mavic Pro, Mavic Air & Mavic 2.
However, DJI does NOT sel batteries anymore for all of them except the Phantom 4 Pro.
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For this very reason, I have sold my Mini 2 fly more on Fleabay ( at some loss ) and immediately
purchased a ( second one for me ) Mavic Pro 2 fly more for the same price.
Fly-by-sticks on long missions is a no-no for me 
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Many thanks for your responses on this. I shall keep my eye out for a good deal on one of these older drones.
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Please remove Air2S from compatibility list until it works.
It might be DJI’s fault but they didn’t just hit me for $25 to deliver software that’s herky jerky on turns, ignores hardware buttons on the Smart Controller and can’t control the camera pitch.
I’m a little salty after spending all morning digging to find that the Air2S people are just out of luck.
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Yes. Its frustrating as hell. Not Litchis fault but absolutely unusable for anything resembling watchable footage.
My question is, what laws would DJI be breaking by allowing their products to have autonomous waypoints? You know, like they used to.
The fact is that dji put cheaper components in the electronics of the drone, and therefore there are no autonomous flights.
Here in the UK you are supposed to fly VLOS and be able to take control of the drone easily
Those rules are the same here in the USA. I have been flying autonomous missions for years and always maintain VLOS and am able to take control if necessary.
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“The fact is that dji put cheaper components in the electronics of the drone, and therefore there are no autonomous flights.”
Can you please provide a source for this “fact”?
It seems counterintuitive to their business model.
“Here in the UK you are supposed to fly VLOS and be able to take control of the drone easily”
Neither of which has any bearing on autonomous flight.
In expensive models, such as pro2, autonomous flights are present.
Why do you think this is not logical? After all, mini also does not have obstacle avoidance sensors, although all models previously had sensors
But in no model since. Including Mavic3 - which costs 5X a Mavic 2.
You claimed it as a fact, I was merely wondering where you got your information from.
Well, because there is no access to memory, just as there is no “dynamic point home”. And no other functions related to the internal memory of the drone and intelligent functions.
Yes. We know.
Again, Im wondering from where you have sourced your information regarding cheaper components. Somehow I feel this factoid will not be forthcoming.
For example
Air 1
Air2
The manufacturer supplied a more expensive camera, as you wanted, but simplified the rest of the scheme, this is marketing.
Are those cheaper components?