The Leap from Fashion to Flying

Chrishanna Frayser’s career began in modeling and fashion, but she soon found herself drawn to a different kind of runway. Her love of airplanes — and her passion for learning how to take things apart and put them back together — inspired her to enter the aviation maintenance field despite having no prior mechanical training.

“I felt far behind my more mechanically-educated classmates,” Frayser recalls, “but that just encouraged me to work harder and take every opportunity to learn so I could catch up.”

It paid off: In 2020, Frayser graduated at the top of her class from PIA Hagerstown and became the only female minority FAA–licensed aircraft technician at Plane Care, a repair facility at Hagerstown Regional Airport, where she performs aircraft maintenance, inspections, and repairs.

“If you want the satisfaction of being able to throw yourself into your work and see a job through from end-to-end, this is definitely something you can learn to do,” says Frayser. “It’s hard work, but seeing a plane you worked on take off safely down the runway is the best feeling in the world.”