The following was heard as my wife and I were flying our Mooney over the northern tip of the Great Salt Lake a few days ago and communicating with Salt Lake Center.
Transient aircraft: “Center, do you have time for a question?”
SL Center: “Sure, go ahead.”
Transient aircraft: “OK, this is the $65 question. Looking below, we can see a train track, shoreline and a reddish area with what look like waves. What is that all about?”
Silence for a short while, then a response from an airliner: “My daughter is a PhD biologist and explained to me that the red color comes from Halobacteria growing in the salt water.”
Transient aircraft: “Thank you very much! You win the $65 prize and we greatly appreciate the explanation!”
SL Center: “That’s a whole lot better than any explanation we could come up with here at Center.”
Another short pause
Airliner: “That PhD cost a lot more than $65.”
The exchange is somewhat paraphrased, other than the punchline. We were laughing too hard by the end for me to copy the exact dialogue.
