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Our Current Happenings


June 15th, 2010

We have returned from LDRS XXIX. It was great to see all our friends out there flying some great projects. Especially the ones who had utilized Tether in their rockets.
In fact, we love hearing about your Tether stories so much, that we are building a testimonials page within our Tether page.
We encourage you to write to us your comments, your stories, detailed descriptions of your project using Tether,
send photos and diagrams to story@defyg.com and we will build our page with your stuff. Please be sure to let us know if you wish to remain anonymous
or if we are to include your name and/or contact infomation.
We look forward to hearing from you.


May 18th, 2010

We are now shipping. All our inventory is back up and we are fully operational. All preorders went out yesterday, right on schedule.
You may notice a slight difference in our retention tabs. We are now having them laser cut, which we think is a big improvement over stamping.
We hope you think so too.


April 26th, 2010

Our sale on Tether has come to a close. Thank you to everyone who placed orders.
Tether is in production and will be shipping on schedule, no later than May 17th, 2010.


April 3rd, 2010

Well this has been a long time coming, but we are finally returning to business, and just in time for LDRS XXIX too. To celebrate our return, and to thank all of our loyal customers that have been sticking by us during this extended break, we are offing a special throw-back price of $59.95 for Tether preorders. That's our original price of Tether back when we opened our virtual door in 2001 (and our biggest discount yet). Just visit our Store to get your order in by midnight on Sunday, April 25th, 2010 - after that, the price returns to $79.95. All orders will ship no later than Monday, May 17th, 2010. That leaves you about a month to test and configure your new Tether for flying at LDRS XXIX. Thank you all once again for your continued support all these years.


January 5th, 2008

From time to time we will receive email asking if we are still in business.
We are still in business. Little apparent activity on our site is due to little changing in the last couple of years,
but rest assured we are still here.


September 30th, 2007

We are back from our trip, which brings our sale on Tether to an end. Thank you to everyone who participated.


September 9th, 2007

We are taking our first family vacation. A 2,500 mile road trip from Southern California to Seattle and back for the remainder of September, visiting lots of friends and family.

During this time we are keeping the Store online to take orders. We will fill these orders and ship them when we return on October 1st, 2007.
To thank you for your understanding of delays, and to encourage you to help us maintain an income to help offset the expense of vacationing, we are lowering the price of Tether by $9.95 until we return.

So if you were considering ordering a Tether, now would be an excellent time. You can save a little money, and we can make it to the next gas station.


February 12th, 2006

We are happy to say that our Store is back up and running.

Some new stuff we would like to point out. First, our very popular Tether is now available in a pack of five for a slightly lower cost. Basically when you buy four at the regular price, you get the fifth at half price. The Tether 5 Pack has everything the individual package contains times five, all in one box. Also, Button has some new additions. You will notice one new style, a new series for club officials, a change to the "My Baby Is..." series, and we will be offering graphic design services and low-quantity price breaks to clubs for their own designs or event souvenirs.

An interesting project was brought to our attention. Colin Rowe of Rowes Retainers and his team used our Tether in a new way. Their project was a very large, 4 motor cluster hybrid called 4KinLL. A big concern was that one or two motors would light before the others and movement would prevent the late motors from igniting properly or at all. They used Tether, mounted under the blast plate to hold the rocket in place until all four motors had lit, then manually triggered Tether to release. Colin used to machine the giant explosive bolts used to hold the Space Shuttle to the pad until the solid rocket boosters were up to pressure, so it's no wonder where he got his inspiration.

Lastly, a heartfelt congratulations to the NAR/TRA legal team on the recent victory in the lawsuit against BATFE. We are all grateful for the last 7 years of work which will help our hobby from becoming regulated to the point of non-existence. Thank you.


January 28th, 2006

Well it has been a long long time since our last update. We had a few rough spots last year, which are carrying over into this year, but soon we will have things straightened out.

The biggest news for us is that we are no longer carrying Control, but will always continue to keep our page up for information purposes, and anyone is welcome to write email to us with any questions you might have about Control. Defy Gravity was not involved in designing or manufacturing Control, and those people are still supporting and producing identical units, with only the name changing to Mission Control. Please contact RocketMotion for future support and purchasing information. All concerned felt this was best for Mission Control, as RocketMotion is better equipped to handle support, product upgrades and greater availability.

Also close on the horizon is new software for Mission Control, called TotalControl which will be much more sophisticated. TotalControl will allow the user to program their Mission Control, then run flight simulations with the unit attached to the computer and responding to the simulation to verify that the user's programming is functioning as intended. Also TotalControl will use previous flight data to refine simulations for extreme accuracy. Soon a Mac OS X version of software based on NControl, called iFly, will allow Macintosh users the same abilities as Windows users for event programming and flight analysis of Mission Control, and other recording altimeters as well. Mission Control itself will evolve as there are plans to increase memory capacity to double the previous amount. All in all, current users of Control and future users of Mission Control will benefit by this change to RocketMotion as the future of the product is brighter than before.

Our Store is still intentionally offline while we finish reorganizing. We expect to have everything back to normal by February 2006. We have Tether fully in stock, we will have new designs and new club and event offers available for Button when our Store returns. Those of you interested in Shelter will have to wait a bit longer, as we have had to push the development back again. Shelter is now slated for as early as March 2006 if all goes as planned. Thank you again to the rocketry community for the support of Defy Gravity over the years.


May 9th, 2005

For all those who have purchased or just interested in Control, please visit our new Control Support page for up-to-date information. Concerns about various issues are always a reality for new products, and Control is not immune. Although Control has been around for a long time now, this recent production has produced several items worth clarifying, thus the creation of a page to support these topics was necessary. We hope you find it to be helpful and if you have any other questions or comments to which you do not find assistance from the Control Support page, please feel free to email us and we will do our best to help as quickly as possible.

A different concern has also been brought to our attention with regard to Tether. If you have purchased a Tether prior to May 5th, 2005 there is a slight chance it may have a very obvious defect. If the slot in the retention fork where the retention tabs are suppose to go seems too shallow to allow the tabs to swing freely once installed, or simply too shallow to even fit, then your Tether has the aforementioned defect. There have been less than 1% of these parts to have this machining defect, and all Tethers purchased after May 5th, 2005 have been thoroughly screened. If you have had this problem, please contact Defy Gravity by email and send the defective part (called the Tether Cup) to us. Regular or Priority Mail please mail to Defy Gravity, Post Office Box 10357, Glendale, California 91209. UPS, FedEx, or any other shipping companies that cannot deliver to a post office box, please ship to Defy Gravity, 120 South Kenwood Street, Glendale, California 91205. We will send you a replacement Tether Cup, and some extra retention tabs for your trouble. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Both Control and Tether are fully in stock and ready to ship. Here on our website, we will be incorporating a library for flight data captured by Control owners for others to download and peruse. So if you have flown your Control and would like to show the world your stuff, please email us with the FLT file attached, as well as your name, details of the rocket and the flight, and any other information you feel useful, and we will post it. The printed version of the newly rewritten User Guide and Rapid Start, as well as the PDF version of the newly rewritten Technical Manual for Control are still currently in production. These will incorporate all the latest updates that appear on the Control Support page, and will be sent to all Control owners upon completion. Shelter has been slow to reappear, but plans are set to have the newly redesigned assembly available by mid-June 2005. Support for Defy Gravity has been wonderful and we are endlessly grateful.


April 3rd, 2005

Control is ready to ship. If you have ordered Control, your order will ship on Monday, April 4th via USPS Priority Mail and you should expect to receive your shipment on Wednesday, April 6th or Thursday, April 7th at the latest. For those of you who placed orders from international locations, your shipments will also ship on Monday, April 4th via USPS Global Priority Mail with a delivery time of five to seven days, so you should have your international orders by Friday, April 8th or Monday, April 11th at the latest. Once again, a big thank you to all for making Control a success.


March 31st, 2005

Some small bit of bad news is that we have run into a few last minute snags and Control is not going to ship quite as scheduled. However, the delay is minimal and all orders will ship on Monday, April 4th, 2005 via UPSP Priority Mail so you will all still receive your new Controls before the weekend of April 9th and 10th. So we hope this minor delay does not ruin any weekend launching plans you may be anticipating. We had announced the addition of the Control Tether Set at our Store and did not want those of you who preordered a Control to be excluded from the discount. So if you have already ordered Control anytime in March 2005, and would like to take advantage of the Control Tether Set discount, simply place an order for Tether as normal and we will refund back to you $15 plus shipping and handling. Our good friends at Extreme Rocketry Magazine have included Control in the Hot Products section of the April issue and we would like to express our gratitude to them. Lastly we would like to call attention to our Links page, as many listed there have helped us by announcing the return of Control and have all along supported Defy Gravity. Show them our thanks by visiting their websites.


March 15th, 2005

Control is coming along nicely and on schedule. Preorders are coming in all the time, and while we will do our best to keep Control in stock, we recommend if you need one soon not to hesitate to not end up in a back order situation. Of course, we will try to keep a lapse of inventory from happening, there are no guarantees. Also added to our Store is the Control Tether Set. Since Tether and Control work so well together, we offer one of each as a set, at a discount from buying them separately. Watch for Control to be mentioned in the Hot Products section of an upcoming issue of Extreme Rocketry Magazine.


March 5th, 2005

It has been a long time since our last news report, but we believe this one was worth the wait. We are very happy to announce that Control is, at long last, available for preorder with units shipping no later than the end of March 2005. We realize this has been highly anticipated and we expect inventory to diminish quickly so if you want one, don't hesitate. We will open Control on our online Store tomorrow, Sunday, March 6th, 2005 starting at 8:00 a.m. Pacific time. Orders will be first come first serve. Thank you for all the interest and support you've shown us over the years despite the non-availability of Control.


July 11th, 2004

Defy Gravity has undergone some renovations and we hope you all enjoy the modifications. We have added a new product to our line. Introducing Button, a bit of rocketry humor to wear. Nothing high tech — no paradigm shifts — just something for fun. We have also been working on bringing more information online about Rocket, but we are not quite done with the fine-tuning. Look for that page soon. Another addition to our site is our Links page to help show support for some of the people out there (other than our loyal customers) who we have helped in some small way, and in turn are helping to support us. Yet another addition is our Order Form to download and print for our customers that wish to place an order through the mail the way we used to before the internet existed. Finally we are proud to announce our first print ad appearing in the latest issue (#37 July 2004) of Extreme Rocketry Magazine. Defy Gravity in conjunction with RocketRage have placed a full page ad on the inside front cover.


June 3rd, 2004

LDRS 23 is just around the corner, and to celebrate Defy Gravity will refund back to you $10 for each Tether ordered during June 2004. Place your order now to get yours in time for LDRS. Or if you are feeling lucky, you can just see if you win the raffle at the LDRS. Also we would like to announce that Defy Gravity Rocket kits will be making an appearance very soon. Two three-inch kits will be our first offering and our goal is to have the strongest, most durable, most inexpensive on the market today. More info to come.


 

April 9th, 2004

Production of Tether is complete. Units are in stock and available to ship immediately. If you took advantage of our pre-order special back in February, your Tether is on it's way. You can expect to receive your order by Wednesday the 14th or Thursday the 15th of April, 2004. New additions to our site included Adobe Acrobat PDF versions of the Tether Technical Manual (package version), Tether Technical Manual (8.5 x 11 printer friendly version) and Tether Rapid Start documentation.


March 20th, 2004

Our latest news is that Control is now currently in production. At this time we do not have an expected ship date, but as soon as a time becomes firm, we will announce it here. We are also proud to report Control has shown up in the December 2003 issue of High Power Rocketry magazine. John Wahlquist of Rocketry Organization of California has authored a very thorough article called Rocket Electronics 101, which first came to print in the November 2003 issue and covers all types of timer electronics. Part II follows up with an equally complete discussion and comparison of altimeters. We are thrilled and grateful to HPR and to Mr. Wahlquist for including Control. Production of Tether is still moving forward and still on schedule for April 15th delivery. Our latest addition to our site is more complete information about Tether, featuring a captioned photo gallery, showing step by step the basics of prepping Tether for operation and description of how Tether works. Also you will find a short QuickTime movie of Tether in action. Soon to follow will be animation of Tether showing even more completely the principles of operation, some new products in our Store, and an update about Shelter. Defy Gravity is growing, thanks to you.


 

March 1st, 2004

We are happy to present our new Store page, now up and running with all Tether components now available for pre-order. Production of Tether is going smoothly and we are ahead of schedule to make the April 15th deadline. Thank you to the many who took advantage of our pre-order special. At this point in time, the Store is pretty bare - but we have a lot of things in the works and will soon have some new products showing up. Also look for a more complete description on the Tether page of how it works. We hope to help everyone understand Tether better.


 

February 9th, 2004

We are very pleased to announce that Tether is currently in production. The first units will begin shipping by mid-April. We are offering a pre-order discount until the end of February. Regular price is $74.95, our pre-order price is $64.95 with free shipping and no sales tax. Order three or more and we will refund an additional $15 back to you. Pre-Orders must be placed before Sunday, February 29th, 2004. Starting Monday, March 1st, 2004, the price of Tether will return to $74.95 plus shipping, plus sales tax (California residents only). Tether will begin shipping no later than Thursday, April 15, 2004, after which pre-order status will terminate and normal ordering will begin. Some slight changes have taken place. New packaging, updated documentation, and some extra parts are now included, however eyescrews will no longer be included with Tether. Eyescrews will only be available in the Tether Accessory Pack, which also will have more extra parts than before at the same price. We greatly appreciate the continued support in us you all have shown, and we are pleased to be able to bring Tether back once again to the rocketry community.


September 11th, 2003

Here it is exactly two months after our reappearance, and at the two year anniversary of our nation's homeland attack, and our growth is much slower than expected. We are still moving forward with the production of Tether and hope to have units available soon. Shelter is in redesign and now at the tail end of the "shade season" will not emerge until early 2004. Control has made some small degree of progress, with the latest version of the Windows application for Control programming and data analysis, called NControl, now available download for free from the Control page of this site. Though our progress is at a crawl, it is steady. Thank you all for your support.


July 11th, 2003

Defy Gravity has returned. We are certainly happy to be back. Although the lack of product is probably not what most of our customers expected, as we have received many emails inquiring of availability. We are currently not shipping any product at this time. Our main focus was to revive our web presence and offer continued support for our prior customers who own and are using our products. We are working to bring back our products. Some sooner than others. Some altered or improved. Some new items will be appearing in the near future as well. A big "thank you" to all of you in the rocketry community who have shown your support for us in the past downtime. You are the reason Defy Gravity is still alive today.