@huntjock , JGB isnt leading you astray... Litchi does not have the 500m horizontal or vertical limits....QUOTE]
Wrong.
I have just confirmed with Litchi Support that Litchi (or any DJI 3rd party app) cannot exceed the 500m vertical limit, which is enforced by the DJI firmware. So, while you can fly a waypoint mission horizontally up to 10km (6.2 miles), which I would consider a fair limitation, your bird cannot rise over .5km (1640 ft) - ever - at once or in aggregate during any flight. Put another way, the overall slope for such a mission must remain below 5% or 2.86 degrees. For my purposes and my geography, that bias simply does not work.