Yeah, but I'm not sure you understood what the lesson _was_.

Pulling the tail feathers off a model which is tied down for engine testing does NOT mean doing so is a bad idea, it means the tail feathers weren't up to the task of holding the model back under full power. The 'lesson' is that models must be built so they CAN BE tied down during full power runs, not because you will always do that, but because you should tie the model down somehow while starting the engine to be _safe_, and you don't want to get chewed up by the prop if you happen to go full throttle _and your model restraint fails_.

Four or five years ago My Dad decided he'd jump back in the hobby after a 20-year absence (he soloed back in the 80s unsing my old student trainer, but never did build his own model). He bought a trainer, flight box, starter, yada yada yada. Borrowed my old but rebuilt K&B .60 and an old Futaba gold-face FM radio system. The engine had not been run since it was rebuilt by K&B a decade or so ago, so I gave him the instruction sheet for breaking it in all over again. He got it all about right, when he clamped the engine to his flight box for a break-in run on the ground. He set the 20-odd pound flight box (with 7AH lead battery inside) on the concrete patio deck, filled the temporary fuel tank, primed the engine, etc., etc., etc. The engine lit up on the first flip just like I told him it would. The bad thing was that Dad had the throttle open about two clicks too far, and the old K&B proceeded to TOW THAT FLIGHT BOX across the patio. He got one shot at the Tx and missed. He showed up at my front door a few days later, handed me all of the stuff he'd bought and borrowed, showed me the 23 stitches in his index finger, and declared that model airplane flyers were lunatics.

Accidents _will_ happen. You just had one, and because you're just getting started in this nutty hobby, there are no doubt more in your future. Do not have an 'accident' because your model could not stand being tied back during ground engine runs.