Parachute Flying for Kids

It was a Sunday and wanted to make some thing for my 33 months daughter. I remember, playing with Parachute when I was kid, thought of making it again. So the Project was ON. 

Since the 47th Singapore Independence Day is Fast Approaching, Thought of using Red Color for my Parachute as Red is one of the Colors in the Singapore Flag!

Currently living in Singapore I always have the advantage of the height because of the tall buildings. Beck in childhood days, maximum I could reach was two floors. I use to stand on my grandfather's house and then throw the folded parachute possible one more floor high to the air, so we use to get the flight time of approx 3 floor. Here I used 15 floors elevation and 10 floors elevation. The flight time was approx 20-40 seconds depending on the wind speed at that height.

Materials needed/Used:
Carry Covers: 3 Nos.
Kitchen Knife
Thread Roll.
Bamboo Stick With a sharp edge.

With 3 carry covers we can make 6 or 9 pieces of parachutes. Another reasons why I used so many parachutes are, First, since the flight time is less 20-40 second for each flight, the fun gets over quickly. To make it little longer you need more pieces. 

Since I was throwing these parachutes from 15floors high, you need more pieces, with one you cannot climb repeatedly those many floors 8-10 times (even using the lift, it is painful I guess).

Making:
1) Cut the carry cover handle and the base of it so that we get plain square sheets.

2) Fold the edges (for more strength) and then make a hold using the bamboo stick.

3) Insert the thread and tie knot couple of times.

4) The length of the thread can be more than the length of the arm of the square sheet, but should be less than the 1-1/2 times the length of the arm of the square sheet.
-----If it is less than the length of the arm of the square sheet, then the surface area for the air to get collected reduces. This makes the object to fall faster. In other words time of flight is smaller.
-----If is too long, it will take that extra long time to open it self after the launch. This again makes the object to fall faster before opening. So lesser time of flight.

5) After tying the knot in all 4 sides, fold the plastic sheet loosely, so that when it is launched, the air fills under that faster. (My first launch was a failure as I has folded the covers tight, the object that was attached fell directly on a car, since it was a piece of plastic it did not cause any damage to the car.) So try to use the hollow plastic toy for the weight/object of fly. Even if it falls on any person below, it will not hurt them.

6) Now the parachute is ready for the flight. I felt 2 people are needed for this activity apart from any number of audience :-). One person to stand at the top and to launch the object - In my case it was my wife who did that great job. I was at the bottom collecting the launched parachutes. My daughter was helping me and enjoying the parachute flight display.

Special Note:
a) Please do this under adult supervision - since the parachute is launched from a height, care is needed
b) The object that you are planning to fly, make sure it is light, hollow and plastic. So it will not hurt any object or person.
c) It took 1 hour for me to prepare 9 pieces of parachute and approx 15 mins of fun. we repeated twice so it was cool 30 mins on a Sunday
d) You can make it little more interesting by writing something on this plastic sheet. That is my next job
e) If you have an option, you can put a small LED light to the object facing upwards, so that you can launch at night. this is my next project too. I am sure it will be fun to watch.

Have a safe landing!!!!!