An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) copter for consumer photography or videography can be launched by a user throwing the UAV copter into mid-air. The UAV copter can detect that the UAV copter has been thrown upward while propeller drivers of the UAV copter are inert. In response to detecting that the UAV copter has been thrown upward, the UAV copter can compute power adjustments for propeller drivers of the UAV copter to have the UAV copter reach a predetermined elevation above an operator device. The UAV copter can then supply power to the propeller drivers in accordance with the computed power adjustments.