Aviation museum volunteer helps to restore historic airplanes

Terry Dobson looks at volunteering as something that might resemble work but in reality is just total fun.

Dobson is the manager of the restoration department at the Kansas Aviation Museum.

“This is where we do the work on old airplanes; refurbish, recover and rebuild them,” Dobson said. “It involves metal work, wood work, welding, painting and everything else.”

He’s been volunteering at the museum at 3350 S. George Washington Blvd. for the past 11 years.

Dobson, 74, has been a pilot since he was 22. As a hobby, he built a couple of home-built planes.

“This is just a way to keep my fingers in the hobby,” Dobson said. “I never worked at any of the aircraft plants. I was one of those oddball guys who was in the automotive glass business for 35 years.”

But he’s always been an aviation enthusiast. And he knows how to work with his hands.

“If it flies, I like it,” he said.

He works with what he calls “165 of the neatest people in town” — other volunteers who may never have had a chance to work with their hands but now want to build and restore.

Together they work on vintage aircraft with specific links to Wichita’s aviation heritage.

This story was originally published September 7, 2014 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Aviation museum volunteer helps to restore historic airplanes."