| Rosalind Irving
I joined Blackburn Aircraft in Brough in Yorkshire as a graduate trainee. Eventually I worked in the systems section in the Aerodynamics office. It was full of young graduates - a fun place to work.
In 1967 I became unsettled, moved to BAC in Warton for six months and moved again to Cambridge University to take a teacher training course. After Cambridge , I worked as a Performance Engineer at Rolls Royce in East Kilbride for three years. Next came two years (almost) working for MTU in Munich on the RB199 engine performance. That was fun too. We used to go skiing most weekends.
Moving back to East Kilbride in 1973, I worked as a maths teacher. Also I married Tiny (Don) Irving . After moving to Hertfordshire, I continued teaching for a time before going back to industry. Our boys arrived in 1976 and 1977. I stayed home for eleven years. I am not sure where the time went.
By 1987, we were living in Crawley in Sussex . Tiny was working for Rediffusion Simulation. I went back to work in the industrial division of RSL. In 1990, when Tiny joined the UK Civil Aviation Authority, I was able to transfer to the Flight Simulation group. I remained there until I retired in 2002. Over the years, I worked on Flight simulators for Boeing and Airbus aircraft. In the course of my work I travelled to Japan, USA, Paris and Frankfurt. I was very sad when the time came to leave. In 2001, Tiny went to work in Canberra, Australia for CASA, the Australian regulatory authority. In 2003, we returned to the UK to live in our holiday house within the conservation area in Kinnesswood in Kinross. Our house is probably a couple of hundred years old and has considerable charm.
In recent times, my eyesight deteriorated greatly due to a corneal disease. There is currently no medicine to help my particular condition. In September 2012, I was fortunate enough to receive a corneal transplant. This has been a life-changing event. Before the transplant operation, I found it difficult to cope and felt unable to go anywhere unescorted. I kept tripping over kerbs and bumping into things. I could not read the numbers on buses. Now I am back driving again. It is a miracle. I will be forever grateful for the generosity of the family of the donor who donated the cornea and skilled surgeon and staff who restored the sight in my eye.
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