Has anyone experienced a situation where you were out of range or otherwise lost contact with the Drone and it returned to home on its own?  Does that actually work?

Hello and good day. Thank you for reaching out. I hope you'll get the best information here from our valued DJI Members and Customers regarding there experience and there insight on this matter.Just for reference regarding the RTH. If the Remote Controller will be disconnected to the Drone then the aircraft will locate the home point as long as the GPS and compass signal is working. I would suggest flying your aircraft in an open area and avoid hazardous environment to prevent incident as well as the interruption. Please see the image below for your reference. Thank you for your support.

Yes, I've had it disconnect and come home. And I've also had the app crash and the drone returned when I couldn't re-establish a connection. Here's a vid of one time when I was testing range and the drone returned home, but ALMOST flew into a wind turbine.

Yes I have had it happened and it does work. One thing to keep in mind is your RTH settings. If you are flying around trees or thin obstacles make sure you have good signal strength because if you loose signal under some branches then it will want to climb to the RTH setting and could hit a branch. Also make sure the  launch area is nice and open so if it does come home it won't lower onto an obstacle either.

Another time when I lost signal i was able to gain control of it once it got closer. I was able to cancel the RTH and continue flying.

Bing Err Posted at 3-2 17:03
Yes, I've had it dicconnect and come home. And I've also had the app crash and the drone returned when I couldn't re-establish a connection. Here's a vid of one time when I was testing range and the drone returned home, but ALMOST flew into a wind turbine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wECbvFBxZmk

Whew, that was really to close for comfort

To the OP if your app is set to RTH in event of disconnect it will RTH but make sure the homepoint is recorded before take off/flight

Have experienced it and yes, it works. This is why it is so important to have the RTH fly altitude set correctly beforehand.

Yes... once.  Worst and best feeling at the same time.  I sent mine up over a ridge line to have a look on the other side and the mountain wall was enough of course to make it disconnect completely.  But having the RTH on worked and it came home.  Note.... RTH can also be a nightmare.  I was getting low battery and bringing mine to land, approximately 8' from landing safely when RTH kicked on and "cancel" was not responding.... being only about 10'  from where home point was set, the "go up" to height hosed me because it tried to fly up under a small bush and snapped my gimbal ribbon cable.  I'm currently in the process of waiting for a repair resolution with official DJI repair.  

Bing Err Posted at 3-2 17:03
Yes, I've had it disconnect and come home. And I've also had the app crash and the drone returned when I couldn't re-establish a connection. Here's a vid of one time when I was testing range and the drone returned home, but ALMOST flew into a wind turbine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wECbvFBxZmk

Great video. Surprised it was more affected by wake turbulence from the turbines

yes it works perfectly in dji go and litchi. Test it on a field, be sure that your homepoint is at your location(on the map) flew away and switch off your RC.

spandit Posted at 3-5 23:12
Great video. Surprised it was more affected by wake turbulence from the turbines

Well if you think about they aren't creating wind. Just moving with the wind that is there. So it should be the exact same wind without the turbines.

Bing Err Posted at 3-6 04:12
Well if you think about they aren't creating wind. Just moving with the wind that is there. So it should be the exact same wind without the turbines.

That's true but they are changing the direction and speed of the wind (velocity) which must cause some turbulence in their wake