Systems and methods are disclosed for determining a vehicle elevation height for launching an unmanned aerial vehicle. Example methods may include performing a quantitative balancing analysis using baseline factors, establishing optimal values for operational goals of a vehicle based on the quantitative balancing analysis, determining a vehicle elevation height that achieves the established optimal values for the operational goals of the vehicle by evaluating vehicle delivery parameters using normalized values, and initiating on a winch system elevation of the unmanned aerial vehicle to the determined vehicle elevation height for launching.