My piloting skills are not there yet, and I'd like to be able to launch my foamy with one hand holding the transmitter. I would like it to immediately climb to the default altitude after leaving my hand.
Should I launch while in Loiter ?
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I always fly in FBW A if I'm not in auto. I probably can't really fly even my apprentice in manual any more, but I could probably bring it home for a sloppy landing if it really came down to it. However, I have landing gear, so I take off on asphalt.
Do not launch in Loiter. That will cause the drone to attempt to turn immediately, which may be problematic.
Here are my suggestions:
1 - If you have not yet tuned the servo control loops, you need to launch in Manual unless you have some assurance that the gain values are not too high. If you have a servo loop oscillation during launch that will be ugly.
2 - I most frequently launch in FBW-A. So long as your airframe has no tendency to sink significantly while the AP is trying to hold a level attitude (prior to your hand returning to the transmitter) this works great. If your airframe does need a bit of positive pitch to avoid sinking and the delay of your hand getting to the stick is too great, you can mix a transmitter switch onto the elevator channel to hold a bit of elevator for you hands off (remember to turn it off after launch, though).
3 - Once your full set of gains is reasonably tuned, launching in Auto with a mission including the TakeOff command works great. This will do what you request - climbing to altitude without your involvement.
P.S. I know about NAV_TAKEOFF but I don't necessarily want the AP to start the program at launch.