Crafting a parachute is easy, 3 wool blocks, 2 silk, and 1 leather. See the crafting recipe screenshot below. The leather pack texture is made by TQuin, thanks! There are more in the mod jar.
Hop-n-pop
There is a config file in the config directory in your minecraft folder. You can set the height limit of the parachute. You really can’t do much above 256 meters anyway. So the default altitude is 225 meters. That should be high enough to get you over anything. You can change this to suit your needs including disabling it altogether by using a limit of zero. You can set your parachute color as well. The parachute color has a ‘random’ setting causing the chute to change color with every opening. There is also an option to disable the ‘thermals’. Another option ‘autoDeploy’ when ‘true’ will automatically deploy the parachute when you fall. A ‘fallDistance’ option allows you to set how far you fall before the parachute auto deploys. All this is explained in the config file.
Use shears to cut the parachute away. This only works in the ‘world space’ below 256 meters.You’ll plummet to your death if you don’t redeploy the parachute, but if that’s what you want….