That could be the problem. It sounds like you may not have charged the battery. The green light means "ready to charge". When you plug the battery in, the green light should start blinking. Then press the "start" button and you will here a beep. The red LED will now flash indicating that it is charging. When both the red and green LED's flash, it is balancing. When the charger beeps and the green LED is on steady, the battery is charged. If your battery is dead, the motor won't run but the servos may still work. It's designed that way so you can dead stick the plane and land it safely with a low battery.

Always let the battery charge fully. Never take it off half way through and try to fly

Also be sure that you have the dial set for the right charging current. For the stock 1800mAh battery, set the dial to 1.75A or slightly past but no more than that.

When the battery starts getting low in flight you'll here the motor surging. It is sort of an on-off-on-off-on-off-on-off sound. Ease back on the throttle and you should have power to come around and land.

As for keeping it in the air, not much too it. The plane flys great. I've never hand launched mine but the only difficulty I could see there is maybe tossing it at too much of an upward angle and stalling the wing. It should have plenty of power for hand launching.