so anyway this is a bit embarrassing but figured id share in case anyone else makes the same dumb mistake. Was out shooting some footage over a reservoir near my house, conditions were fine, maybe 12-15mph wind but nothing crazy. I was probably 800 feet out over the water and just kind of got fixated on the shot I was trying to get and didn't notice the battery had been draining faster than usual probably because of the wind.

RTH kicked in automatically which was good but I had set my RTH altitude to like 50 feet because I mostly fly in open fields and forgot to change it before this flight. There's a tree line between the lake and where I was standing and for a second I genuinely thought it was going to clip the tops of the trees on the way back. It cleared them by what felt like nothing but was probably more like 10-15 feet in reality. Still. Lesson learned and I now double check RTH altitude every single flight before i take off. Cant believe i was that careless with a $1000 drone over water.

Anyone else have a near miss story they want to share so I feel less alone here lol

Oh man I felt this one. I had something similar happen with my Mavic Pro back in the day, not over water but I had set RTH altitude low for some indoor-ish flying and then went out to a spot with a lot of tall obstacles and just completely forgot to reset it. Drone came back fine but it was threading through some gaps I would never have chosen manually. Now RTH altitude check is like the first thing on my mental checklist, even before props on honestly.

The battery thing over water is genuinely one of those situations that ages you. Glad you got it back.

this is why i always check the wind at altitude before going far out over anything i cant retrieve from. the surface wind at your feet can be totally different to whats happening at 200-300 feet and the Mavic series really does chew through battery fighting a headwind on the return. the app shows wind speed but its not always accurate for higher altitudes in my experince