Hello everyone and welcome to my personal blog. My name is James Warren and I’m a retired airplane mechanic. My entire life I’ve worked as a mechanic at the Luton Airport, in Luton, where I was born and raised. Since retirement back in 2016 I’ve been trying to keep myself busy by working on various projects and learning new things. After a lifetime of being a grease monkey and dealing with valves, pistons, cylinders, crankshafts, propshafts, etc. I’ve decided to expand my horizons.
Naturally I spend my retirement doing the usual stuff that retirees do. Like traveling and discovering new places. This summer I’m planning on visiting Croatia. I’ve been hearing great stories about several locations there, including a place called Blue Lagoon near city of Split (or Trogir which is even closer). Apparently this is a breathtaking location where you can take a boat trip inside a cave with clear water underneath you, so it looks like you’re floating on water. It’s difficult to explain, but trust me, it’s well worth the trip to Croatia. On the official Blue Lagoon tour link you can see some photos, and read reviews written by people who visited it (includin myself).
Plus, since my retirement check isn’t that big, visiting Croatia fits right into my budget, since stuff over there isn’t priced out of proportions. Another great thing about this small little gem of a country on the Adriatic coast is that there are many other places that you can visit. Like for example city of Split, which is what I’m initially planning on visiting. I just hope there are some guides on all the interesting day trips from Split Croatia, since I’m sure there are many. There’s one in depth guide covering pretty much all you can do in Split, it was published by local travel agency and can be found on this link.
But enough about the boring stuff that most retirees do, and lets talk about the geeky topics like this website for example. This website is a product of my latest undertaking where I try to setup a website all by myself (with the help of YouTube of course.). Next to creating websites, I’ve recently gotten into playing with various tech gadgets, like DSLR cameras, RC cars and trucks, PC assembling and lately I’ve been trying to get my hands on a high quality video drone, to combine my love for cameras and RC toys. I don’t want to buy cheaper models, so I’m waiting to have enough money to buy a more expensive model, with a better camera.
My newfound love for aerial gadgets is what inspired the name for this website. Recon Prop is a shortening that I’ve come up for Reconnaissance Propeller. That’s what all these high quality drones that I’m currently trying to buy look like to me. Just propellers in the air, buzzing. They’re pretty amazing pieces of technology, no doubt about that, but to an old chap like myself, these are just propellers in the sky, that buzz, and can be use to spy on the neighbourhood.
My story
Childhood and my school days
I was born in Luton, where I grew up and made a home for myself. It’s difficult for a little kid growing up in Luton not to be influenced by the myriad of airplanes which were coming in and out of Luton even back then, when I was a kid, all those years ago. Obviously, everyone wanted to be pilots, and be behind the control wheel of an airplane. Unfortunately not everyone is cut out to be a pilot. My eyesight was never good, it wasn’t back when I was young and it has only gotten worse over the years. You don’t need to have perfect vision to be an airplane pilot, but my vision is so bad that I didn’t make the cut and I couldn’t get into pilot school.
Since I couldn’t get my plan A into motion, and become a pilot, I was forced to switch to plan B. Plan B was to find a way to make a living while being around airplanes. I looked into it, and becoming a mechanic was the next best thing. You don’t need perfect vision for that. So I enrolled into an aircraft mechanic training program, or whatever it was called, at the Solihull College & University Center. It was close to home and it gave me an opportunity to study something that would allow me to be close to airplanes, which was how I became an aircraft mechanic.
Working at the Luton Airport
After finishing up my training at Solihull, I’ve started working at the Luton Airport right away. Things were different back then. I hear youngsters today have problems finding work fresh out of university. So yeah, after listening about airplanes during my college courses, about the various crankshafts, driveshafts, propshafts and other important bits and piece that make up an airplane, I was finally ready to get my hands dirty properly and actually start working on an airplane, fixing it. They feeling was amazing.
A lot of years have past since I started working, and looking back on it all now that I’m in retirement, I really can’t complain on how everything worked out for me. Of course, I would have loved to have he kind of toys that I have now, like the high quality drone that I mentioned, back then when I was younger, but I realize that these have only become popular in the last couple of years. Now that I’ve been in my retirement for the past couple of years and I’ve been get my hands on all these toys, it’s like I’m entering into a second childhood.
Retirement and this website
It’s an odd combination in this paragraphs title, but without my retirement there wouldn’t be this website. As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve got into my retirement back in 2016, and ever since my dear wife Sophie passed away I’ve been alone. Many of my mates have started traveling once they ended up in their retirements, but I opted out for a different approach. Despite being a mechanic most of my life, and spending my time around engines, servicing various parts like driveshafts, propshafts, and million other things that make up a plane, I’ve always loved technology.
That’s why when I got into retirement I started discovering all the various toys and gadgets that exist out there. Old age really is like a second childhood, but in my case not that you start losing the ability to take care of yourself, but rather that you rediscover your love for learning new things. Recon-Prop.com has been the latest project of mine and I really hope that you like this website of mine. I’m still learning how everything needs to be setup, but I’m hoping that on this website I’m going to be writing about my various exploits and projects that I’m going to be doing. Hopefully you’ll come back from time to time and visit my little corner of the internet. Until next time, all the best.
James Warren