bhanley's got the idea I like and use...

You can get a pair of 12 foot long, 1 inch wide adjustable cargo straps from Wally World for $5.00 IIRC, and you can attach those to a pole or anything solid, I've even wrapped one around the rear tire of my Jeep. You can use additional foam around the strap where it fits over the tail if you want. I was taught to restrain models in some way right from my trainer days, and on one particular occasion it saved me from being eaten by a 110 size glow engine spinning a 16x6 APC prop at 9000 plus RPM. I'd forgotten to change the model in my tx and the throttle servo had reversed travel, so it went to full power when it started... [X(]

Two things to keep in mind; you must make sure the strap doesn't cut across any control linkages or delicate parts when you put it on so it might run over the top of the fuselage or the bottom. The other thing is that I only use this for starting and usually do power checks like a lot of guys, standing over the fuselage with a leg on each side of the horizontal stab. That works for my 50 size gasser, but the 100 size I always ask someone to hold when doing power checks. The gassers can damage the tailfeathers if you do power checks with just the strap holding them. I've got a friend who taught me the cargo strap trick find out the hard way about running power checks on an 80 size gasser he'd just built and only the strap holding it, then he had to rebuild the tailfeathers.

Either way, even if it does get away from you and damage the tailfeathers, it WILL keep it from damaging you... [8D]