It seems Vinny has also stopped going away between episodes to look stuff up and learn how to do specific manoeuvres. I love this game but there are some things most people will need to read up on or they won’t get the physics.
Finally, you want normal parachutes and not drogue chutes. Drogue chutes are designed to slow you down before deploying your main parachutes, but aren't enough to stop you from smacking the ground hard.
This, from experience and not reading the descriptions properly...
Imperatas's comments