Parachuting Videography Rig

If you have ever wanted to see what it looks like to drop your phone off something tall without it breaking, then this instructable is for you. In this instructable, I will show you how to build a rig that can carry a phone and be attached to miniature parachutes so you can parachute your phone off tall places and get a really cool looking video. The video below will give a demonstration of the rig from the phone point of view and my point of view.

Lets get started.

To build this videography rig, you will need some household, and non-household materials:

• Cardboard(from an old box)
• Popsicle sticks
• Rope
• Binder Ring
• Beads
• 2 Military Surplus Parachutes(From a mililitary surplus website)

Tools:

• Hot glue gun
• Box cutter knife

The cardboard carriage will hold your phone while it is in the air. It needs to match the size of your phone and have a hole in the bottom to let the camera see out. To make the carriage, cut out the the cardboard according to the diagram above. Trace the size of your phone on the cardboard, make flaps the length of each side and about a centimeter wide come from each side. Then cut out a hole for the camera without disturbing the flaps. Then, bend all the flaps up, and hot glue them so they stay in position. Finally, insert your phone and add beads and Popsicle stick shims to keep the phone (or an ipod in my case) from moving.

The supports will allow the phone carriage to be attached to the parachutes. Make them in a triangle position with a crossbeam across the center. Use Popsicle sticks and hot glue. Make sure the crossbeams are in the center of the carriage. Finally, put two more crossbeams in the middle to hold the parachute in the very center of the carriage. You should be able to hold the second crossbeams and have the carriage stay level.

To attach the parachutes to the carriage, take a binder ring and a loop of rope, and attach it to the second crossbeam, then attach the carabiner of the parachute to the loop of rope.

To secure the phone to the carriage, make a cardboard square and attach two beads to it. Then, set it on top of the phone when it is in the carriage, and use a rubber band to hold the top on the phone. This should keep the phone inside the carriage.

To launch your parachuting rig, you need to find a tall place with no obstructions. In my case, I found an abandoned windmill tower in an empty field. It is about 100 feet tall. Any shorter, and your parachutes will not have enough time to deploy, and your phone will break. The tower needs to be about 70 feet or taller for the parachute to deploy.

To test the parachute rig, climb to the top of the tower, and hold the tip of the parachutes, then let go. The parachute rig will then glide down to the ground. Make sure to start your phone on video recording mode before you throw it so you can obtain the video and see it from the parachutes perspective.

Good luck building!

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the breaking of your phone if your parachuting rig does not work.