In 1999, along with Ansett Australia flight attendant, Judy Cullinane, she helped initiate the 1999 Australian Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee inquiry into contaminated air on aircraft.
Michaelis initially worked as a flight instructor at Southern Air Services at Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne before working in the Northern Territory flying single and multi-crew commercial flights across the top end of Australia for Air North and Lloyd Aviation on twin Cessna and Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante aircraft.
[14][15] In 1994, she began flying the British Aerospace BAe 146 until 1997, when she retired due to ill health after repeated exposure to contaminated air on the aircraft she flew.
She is regularly asked to speak at international conferences on the topic of aircraft contaminated air,[19][20][21] and has published many peer-reviewed papers.
[27] In 1987, she was awarded the Civil Aviation Safety Authority Sir Donald Anderson Trophy for Academic Merit when she qualified as a commercial pilot.