Adding floating/gliding parachute-like behavior to physics object

I was experimenting with making a side-view physics game, what I have now is really similar to the golf template

editor.construct.net

What I am trying to do is while the ball is in motion the player gives input and the ball suddenly behaves as if it released a parachute. Meaning: it would carry the same directional motion, but would slow momentum and gravitational forces.

Hitting the same button again would "release" the parachute and drop the object.

In-game its supposed to be a seed that grows some dandelion-like fuzz, to clarify the parachute element. I'd also really like to add wind forces but one step at a time.

Also:

I am so much more familiar with doing some of this stuff with bullet behavior, I kind of want to just have the physics object swap behaviors to bullet behavior. But in that case, is there a way to change behaviors but continue the angle of motion?

You can make a parachute like behavior by lowering the gravity amount, or applying a small (less than gravity) upward force every tick.

If you change the gravitational force, you're changing the angle of motion.