S01.E05: A $250,000 Gamble

[MarkHB]

A pair of fugitives considers risking everything to set up a secret rendezvous with a loved one. Also, the Command Center interrogates a fugitive's sister in an attempt uncover new leads.

[NYGirl]

I thought the escape room guys were crazy to fly the wife to them.  I thought the hunters were on her like white on rice!  They were pretty lucky.  Why the heck did she taunt them by posting that picture?  I'm worried about them.

It looks like we have the final 4 going on and they didn't even catch anybody tonight.

English seems to be pretty capable.  I would never have thought that.  However I think they are the next team to get caught.

I am now wondering if David and Emily get caught next week.  It seems like the hunters have caught on to them.

The middle eastern guys really had me holding their breath but they seem to know what to do...especially when they get money out of the ATM.

[LostOnline]

Ok, I had to create an account just to ask this. Did I miss something? How did the hunters find the place where David & Emily were hiding out? The last I saw, they knew about Vidalia because of Holly. How did they get to Blaze and the house address? I know they sort of pointed at the blotter, but I thought the blotter didn't have a full address. Plus it seemed like they didn't know who Blaze was until after they spoke to him. Not that it matters, but if anyone can clear this up for me, I'd really appreciate it!

[CourtneyCourt]

13 minutes ago, LostOnline said:

Ok, I had to create an account just to ask this. Did I miss something? How did the hunters find the place where David & Emily were hiding out? The last I saw, they knew about Vidalia because of Holly. How did they get to Blaze and the house address? I know they sort of pointed at the blotter, but I thought the blotter didn't have a full address. Plus it seemed like they didn't know who Blaze was until after they spoke to him. Not that it matters, but if anyone can clear this up for me, I'd really appreciate it!

I thought the house address was on the calendar. Holly led them to Vadalia and then they saw the corresponding address on the blotter. 

[FastLou]

56 minutes ago, CourtneyCourt said:

I thought the house address was on the calendar. Holly led them to Vadalia and then they saw the corresponding address on the blotter. 

That is how they portrayed it if we believe the thing about the calendar. It is a shame they don't know in what ways they are compromised, because they could probably head to their next spot.

but they should be planning to ditch the car. They know Blaze is on the radar and he got them the car.

[FastLou]

I am Done with Hillmar & friend. It's a month, not six years. Talk to your family when you get back. Idiots.

I have no idea what English & Stephen are planning and maybe that's a good thing. But it does seem like they under planned.

Aasif & friend are doing well. I thought it was smart of the hunters to check nearby mosques and was Very glad the "CCTV" did not reveal their ride away (at least so far). They need to find a good spot in Atlanta go get more money safely and then disappear into another part of the city. They could easily get a crappy motel for $50 a night to get totally off the grid and figure out a next move. I can think of a couple likely options within a few miles of me where it's relatively safe but ain't nobody gonna be talking to the po-lice. I'm sure some of the friendly hookers would even let them borrow their burner phone.

[LostOnline]

If they had the exact address, why did they even care about Holly going to Vidalia? Heck, why were they tracking her phone? Wouldn't they have just expected the fugitives to be in Vidalia at the address on the blotter on the given date?  I should probably stop trying to understand what they're doing.

I have a related question that's been bugging me since last week. In the real world, would they have been able to get the data on Holly's phone movements? Don't you need some kind of court order for that? At the time they got that info, there was nothing that suggested she was helping them, just a mention of her in his book written years ago.

[teo47]

The address thing didn't make sense to me either.  They knew that David & Emiley were following the calendar and appeared to have the full address written on it, even though I swear they said last week that it was a partial address and they couldn't figure out exactly where it was.  If they had the full address weeks in advance, they would've had teams waiting for them there once they arrived.  Something doesn't add up there - maybe just poor editing.

Regarding the tracking of Holly's phone, my guess is that as soon as she agreed to help David & Emiley and appear on camera, she became part of the game and was required by the rules to give up her phone records, social media accounts, etc. to the hunters if they requested it.  No court order needed if agreeing to give that information up willingly is part of the deal to get yourself on TV!

My favorite team at this point is definitely Aarif and Immad - they are the only team I'm truly rooting for and they appear to be playing the game very well.  I suspect Lee and Hilmar will end up winning possibly with the hunters never coming close to catching them, but the taunting stuff is pretty silly as is the overly dramatic 'fly in the wife' plan a week before the end of the game.  I thought David & Emiley would win, but not so sure now that their license plates are being tracked.  I think Stephen and English will be caught soon as they don't appear to think through their decisions too well or really have much of a plan.  Soon they'll ask for help from someone too close to them and that'll be the end for them.

Edited February 16, 2017 by teo47

[jumper sage]

Coming into this late.  I finally watched the show and was rolling my eyes too.  The two guys (escape room?), one of them was whining about it being his birthday and not seeing his kids for 15 days.......OMG!  You aren't really on the run but have agreed to go on a game show.  [shakes head, walks away]

[GaT]

1 hour ago, LostOnline said:

I have a related question that's been bugging me since last week. In the real world, would they have been able to get the data on Holly's phone movements? Don't you need some kind of court order for that? 

 

36 minutes ago, teo47 said:

Regarding the tracking of Holly's phone, my guess is that as soon as she agreed to help David & Emiley and appear on camera, she became part of the game and was required by the rules to give up her phone records, social media accounts, etc. to the hunters if they requested it.  No court order needed if agreeing to give that information up willingly is part of the deal to get yourself on TV!

This is what drives me crazy, the hunters can make anybody let them in their houses or search whatever they want or have access to any device they want. This is such a huge advantage & if this was RL, they wouldn't have it. The hunters shouldn't be allowed this level of access.

[FastLou]

1 hour ago, LostOnline said:

If they had the exact address, why did they even care about Holly going to Vidalia? Heck, why were they tracking her phone? Wouldn't they have just expected the fugitives to be in Vidalia at the address on the blotter on the given date?  I should probably stop trying to understand what they're doing.

That is a very good point. If we believe the calendar, they had an address and a date - they could have just dispatched a team to sit on that place around the date on the calendar. It did sound like there were two properties in the same parcel, which is how they got away, but some Hunter could have been there in advance.

1 hour ago, LostOnline said:

I have  a related question that's been bugging me since last week. In the real world, would they have been able to get the data on Holly's phone movements? Don't you need some kind of court order for that? At the time they got that info, there was nothing that suggested she was helping them, just a mention of her in his book written years ago.

Unless we both missed something I think you are right - I don't know the probable cause to track her phone. Supposedly (in the game) the Hunters must fill out the kind of paperwork that would go to judges and then the producers decide if there is PC to give them what they want. That includes things like CCTV, License Plate captures and Phone Tracking. I don't recall seeing anything that was significant enough to track Hollys phone. If they don't have that, they don't have Blaze (who lawyer/preacher had NO direct social media connection to) and all they have is maybe that Vidalia address. Conceivably the Hunters could work backwards from that address, but we didn't see it.

i think the thing that bothers me most is the "CCTV" cameras. Obviously those are staged but even in a best case scenario, it would take hours or days to obtain that. Most cameras are Not online, and certainly not quickly searchable. To get gas station or mosque or any private business footage you need to go to the business and actually look at the footage. Even if there is wifi/cloud storage you need to get that info - Law Enforcement can't just tie immediately into that like they show. I don't know enough about the traffic cam license scanners, but I'm guessing there is a pretty significant delay on those as well. There are too many different tech companies and jurisdictions involved for there to be some central repository that immediately responds to alerts. The technology required to implement that seems beyond most jurisdictions.

if I'm wrong about that, then America is scarier than I thought, although I am sure they are working to get there.

the stuff that rings most true is the phone / online information gathering. A number of agencies are constantly gathering and analyzing that info, and it you have the right access and search terms they would be very useful.

[FastLou]

19 minutes ago, GaT said:

 

This is what drives me crazy, the hunters can make anybody let them in their houses or search whatever they want or have access to any device they want. This is such a huge advantage & if this was RL, they wouldn't have it. The hunters shouldn't be allowed this level of access.

So far we haven't actually seen many people say "No" - although Blaze didn't let the Hunters into the cabin, and good on him. I don't have proof, but I'm guessing the game terms say the helpers must Talk to the Hunters, but they are still free to lie or misdirect. The crazy thing is even knowing that a lot of people still give up imformation. I imagine if they were real police they'd be even more effective. 

Police can lie, they can threaten, they can at times hold you against your will just because they Think you may be involved. And most people will cooperate because they are scared or do not know their (increasingly more limited) rights. Sadly I don't find that aspect of the show very suspect at all. The British Hunter skyping with the wife was par for the course.

[piequinn35]

Yes the cctv cameras bothers me too, some are not online so they won't see them live wtf, yes keep taunting the hunters I like that and also the license plate readers are they only in highways or are they everywhere too? If not then avoid highways.

and my bet to win is Aarif/Imad as well.

[Nashville]

1 hour ago, FastLou said:

1 hour ago, GaT said:

 

This is what drives me crazy, the hunters can make anybody let them in their houses or search whatever they want or have access to any device they want. This is such a huge advantage & if this was RL, they wouldn't have it. The hunters shouldn't be allowed this level of access.

So far we haven't actually seen many people say "No" - although Blaze didn't let the Hunters into the cabin, and good on him. I don't have proof, but I'm guessing the game terms say the helpers must Talk to the Hunters, but they are still free to lie or misdirect. The crazy thing is even knowing that a lot of people still give up imformation. I imagine if they were real police they'd be even more effective. 

Police can lie, they can threaten, they can at times hold you against your will just because they Think you may be involved. And most people will cooperate because they are scared or do not know their (increasingly more limited) rights. Sadly I don't find that aspect of the show very suspect at all. The British Hunter skyping with the wife was par for the course.

IMHO this is actually one of the more truthful aspects of the show.  Production appears to take pains in simulating some degree of reality in terms of information to which the hunters would have access in response to a warrant.  Such simulation is not required, however, if the hunters on the ground can wheedle and trick potential sources into giving up information without a warrant.

[GaT]

1 hour ago, Nashville said:

IMHO this is actually one of the more truthful aspects of the show.  Production appears to take pains in simulating some degree of reality in terms of information to which the hunters would have access in response to a warrant.  

That's the problem, they act like they would always have a warrant whenever they wanted one, but that's not how it works in RL. Law enforcement has to actually prove to a judge that there's a valid, legal reason for a warrant, but the show acts like any warrant the hunters would want, they would get.

[loki567]

Good on Blaze. Probably the only person who's held strong against the hunters and you know, fuck the hunters. 

My guess is David and Emily aren't going to make it. You can't have that many close calls without them right on your tail. The hunters have infinitely more resources and nobody escapes a high-speed chase in this situation. That was pure luck they escaped. And I'm glad they showed something silly like that can happen to law enforcement. 

I'm going to guess that there's going to be two winner teams, the Wolves and Aarif/Imad. Going into the finale (I assume it's the finale next week) with four teams still on the run strikes me as odd, especially since the King couple seems like filler. The producers probably want several captures at the end. The Wolves seem like they've completely lost the hunters but the airport taunt wasn't smart. Aarif/Imad also look like they're a few steps ahead. 

ETA: Anybody want some extra information on the show, check the CBSHunted Reddit. Charles DeBarber (bowtie guy) is answering questions on the episode discussion pages. He says they actually got on the cabin because they checked out Blaze, saw that he rented a car through his agency and traced the tag number. Basically the reverse of what happened in the episode. 

Edited February 16, 2017 by loki567

[Eolivet]

Here's my dumb question: why are "the Wolves" so smart? What has made them so evasive? This is why this show absolutely sucks at storytelling. I've seen them maybe three times, and last I heard, they used the mail that the hunters intercepted.

(Also, was bringing in that guy's wife, because he was whining about wanting to see his unborn child, as if he actually had to go on the run and didn't choose to play hide-and-seek with his bestie while his wife was at home pregnant, with two little kids, supposed to make me like him? He cannot lose fast enough for me. I wish Hilmar and David could ditch their partners, like we root for on The Amazing Race. As others have said, their partners will be their downfall.)

Again, what is missing here, to me, is why are people good at this game (other than They Can Evade the Hunters). It's what every other reality competition shows in painstaking fashion (they're good at challenges, they have a good social game, they have a massive alliance, they don't get flustered, they don't fight and there's no drama, they're insanely athletic). They're trying to tell me "the Wolves" are smart, but have done very little to show me why.

They're doing a better job with Aarif/Imad (whose social game is on point and have good evading skills). But I kind of don't even know why David and Emiley are smart (they...have a lot of friends? they rented a car as a decoy?), since she left that calendar behind. Some kind of narration that shows why these people have done such a better job than the other teams who were captured would really put this show into perspective.

As it stands now, it's They're Good Because We Say They Are. Until They Are Not And We Capture Them.

[Tabasco Cat]

12 minutes ago, Eolivet said:

Also, was bringing in that guy's wife, because he was whining about wanting to see his unborn child, as if he actually had to go on the run and didn't choose to play hide-and-seek with his bestie while his wife was at home pregnant, with two little kids, supposed to make me like him?

I actually want him and his buddy to win, but you're right about this point. You're not going to be home for Father's Day and your birthday. You're not home to keep up on developments with your wife's pregnancy. If it bothers you that much then DON'T GO ON THE SHOW. Don't tell me your sob story because I don't want to hear it. Don't go on the show if all those other things mean that much to you! Obviously they don't because you chose a chance to win $250,000 over those other things.

[MarkHB]

2 hours ago, loki567 said:

Going into the finale (I assume it's the finale next week)

As a pure guess on my part, I'm thinking there are two episodes left because Survivor doesn't premiere until March 8.  Although, the official title of next week's is "The Final Escape" per cbs.com, so who knows.

[teo47]

15 minutes ago, MarkHB said:

As a pure guess on my part, I'm thinking there are two episodes left because Survivor doesn't premiere until March 8.  Although, the official title of next week's is "The Final Escape" per cbs.com, so who knows.

I think this is correct - the show was advertised as having 8 episodes, meaning there should be two hours left if you count each hour of the 2-hour episode separately.  "The Final Escape" suggests to me that we see Lee & Hilmar win next week - it doesn't seem like the hunters really have any idea where they are (aside from the unnecessary taunting) and it could be a pretty anticlimactic end of the game for them.   I bet Stephen & English also get caught next week, leaving the finale to focus on the more featured teams of David & Emiley and Aarif & Immad.

[Gregg247]

I loved the unecessary taunting of the Hunters!  You could tell the guys at "Control Center" were ticked off (again).  I didn't like the really dangerous move of flying the pregnant wife in for the day, though.  That seemed really stupid and careless; I'm glad it worked out for them.

I don't like David and his girlfriend, but the way the hunters zeroed in on the cabin they were at seemed really fishy to me, so I was rooting for them to escape this time.  Last week, the calendar they had was too vague to get any actionable info.  This week, they moved right in on the secluded cabin in the woods with it.  And who knew a dude named "Blaze" would be the MVP of "helpers" on this show!

The husband/wife team are flailing around pretty badly.  Starting the hunt from a vacation home has got to be a serious disadvantage, as they're away from their friends/family/comfort zone.  The husband seems fairly useless so far, too, as the wife is definitely in charge of everything and could probably use some assistance.

[basiltherat]

It really ticks me off that the guy (Lee I think his name is, but I don't care enough to remember) flies his wife in because they can't stay away from each other.  Made me think immediately of all the service men and women who leave for not days but months and years in harm's  way, and these bozos signed up in order to win a bunch of money.  What a weenie!  Hope he gets caught because of the taunting photo.  I love d-bags being hoisted by their own petards!  Please give me that, stupid show.

[Wings]

I have to believe the Taunters will be caught.  The hunters are serious law men with huge egos.  They are not going to allow this team to make fools of them on a reality show.  Never.  Given that, Aarif and Iman seem to have the best shot to win if, indeed, there is a winner.  I guess there would have to be from the TV show angle.

[Wings]

6 hours ago, loki567 said:

ETA: Anybody want some extra information on the show, check the CBSHunted Reddit. Charles DeBarber (bowtie guy) is answering questions on the episode discussion pages. He says they actually got on the cabin because they checked out Blaze, saw that he rented a car through his agency and traced the tag number. Basically the reverse of what happened in the episode. 

Do you have a link?  I am cruising around reddit but not finding what you are talking about.  

[Vicky8675309]

I liked them taunting the Hunters :)

[Puffaroo]

2 hours ago, Vicky8675309 said:

I liked them taunting the Hunters :)

I did, too, but I made the assumption that the newspaper was from somewhere else.  Am I wrong?

[Skyfall]

2 hours ago, Vicky8675309 said:

I liked them taunting the Hunters :)

Same, they seem to be having fun with it while still being smart. The ex con and pastor's daughter has still yet to figure out their entire schedule was compromised but at least now they seem to be off that schedule. HOWEVER, remember that one of the rumored rules if they have to withdraw from an ATM twice. We've seen one team do this already and Ex con/pastors daughter I believe only has done it once so they will be caught most likely when they try to do it again. Has the Wolves even done one withdrawal? Team Vacation will be caught soon enough.

[loki567]

3 hours ago, wings707 said:

Do you have a link?  I am cruising around reddit but not finding what you are talking about.  

https://www.reddit.com/r/CBSHunted/

[Wings]

29 minutes ago, Skyfall said:

HOWEVER, remember that one of the rumored rules if they have to withdraw from an ATM twice.

I didn't read this anywhere.  Where did you see this. 

18 minutes ago, loki567 said:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CBSHunted/

Thanks. 

[Bryce Lynch]

15 hours ago, GaT said:

 

This is what drives me crazy, the hunters can make anybody let them in their houses or search whatever they want or have access to any device they want. This is such a huge advantage & if this was RL, they wouldn't have it. The hunters shouldn't be allowed this level of access.

The friend who was helping the ex-gang member lawyer and his gf didn't let the hunters into the house.  I don't think friends and family are required to let them in, they are just talked into it.  Experienced former law enforcement people can be very persuasive and give the impression you don't have a choice, when you do.

In the real world, helping and lying to cover for fugitives would be more problematic for the friends and family than on the show.  They could face obstruction of justice or aiding and abetting charges.   

[Mystery]

This is no longer "watch right away" TV for me, but I did get around to it today. The wolves sending away for the wife was so stupid, to me, because they were halfway through AND because it was one team member benefitting while the other one just had to take the chance that it would backfire. 

On the other hand, although I also think it was stupid to taunt the hunters with that picture (I hope it IS of the wrong place!) I can see why the wife did it; she had a hashtag about how THEIR blood pressure was doing, which is what they were bullying her about on the phone call. That must have made her mad. 

So English and Stephen had a 48-hour window (correct?) in which they could be notified that they were on the run, and they chose to go on vacation during that time?? I had assumed that they were visiting her parents because they were going to take care of the kids. But then in this episode they were whining about how being away from home had wrecked their plans. 

I heart Blaze. 

[TeapotWakeen]

There's a good summary article here, which pulls from the Reddit AMA, but also from his own research (no spoilers).

[piequinn35]

Ugh so the friends and family signed a paper before they could help the fugitives and to help the hunters too, that's why English's sister was skyping with the hunter instead of "fuck off" :/

[Skyfall]

5 hours ago, Mystery said:

This is no longer "watch right away" TV for me, but I did get around to it today. The wolves sending away for the wife was so stupid, to me, because they were halfway through AND because it was one team member benefitting while the other one just had to take the chance that it would backfire. 

On the other hand, although I also think it was stupid to taunt the hunters with that picture (I hope it IS of the wrong place!) I can see why the wife did it; she had a hashtag about how THEIR blood pressure was doing, which is what they were bullying her about on the phone call. That must have made her mad. 

So English and Stephen had a 48-hour window (correct?) in which they could be notified that they were on the run, and they chose to go on vacation during that time?? I had assumed that they were visiting her parents because they were going to take care of the kids. But then in this episode they were whining about how being away from home had wrecked their plans. 

I heart Blaze. 

I think they had to because their home was outside of the film zone.

6 hours ago, wings707 said:

I didn't read this anywhere.  Where did you see this. 

Thanks. 

Look in the rules thread, pretty sure the link in regards to that one was posted in there.

[Christina]

I missed the last two episodes, decided not to bother watching them, but caught this one. This show either needed a longer run so more information could be included, or they need better editors. It is so choppy and clearly what we are seeing on the show is not how it actually happened, and we could figure that out before the Reddit disclosures were made. I don't like being treated like I'm stupid by the shows I watch, unless I'm expecting it, like on Teen Mom and Sister Wives, and I quit watching Sister Wives years ago because it is so boring.

I still don't like the Hunters and don't much care for arrogance of "the Wolves" and hope they get caught because of their hubris. But, I also want them to make it until the end because they are rattling the cages of the Hunters, who I dislike more and are every bit as arrogant, so that is frustrating viewing but can't be blamed on the show.

The frustrations that can be blamed on the show begin with how obviously apparent it is that the Hunters are getting information from production, because they obviously wouldn't have access to security cameras, license plate readers, ATM cameras, etc., and if they would spend a few minutes explaining that "Information A" and "Information B" would have allowed them to get a warrant if these were real fugitives, and therefore they have it for the show, that clarity alone would improve my viewing experience. But instead, we have the Hunters self-flagellating themselves because they are so awesome and figured out the friends and locations from some obscure reference on Facebook. That very well may happen in real life, but it probably wouldn't happen in the time frame in which these hunts are happening, but instead after the obvious leads went cold. It may not bother me so much if I liked the Hunters, but I can't even enjoy hate-watching them, because they bug so bad.

The excuse that they don't want to tip-off real fugitives is ridiculous to me, since they claim it is based on real-life situations at the same time as they are recreating situations for the "benefit" of viewers which are not what actually took place, and are purporting to use technology that doesn't exist, like the database of car rentals. This sounded like such an interesting show and could be so much better. It shouldn't be a cake-walk for the participants since they are trying to win money, but the way it is edited and being aired make it seem like they have little to no chance to win. It also makes the participants look stupid in a bunch of their actions, all because they don't want to disclose the rules of the game such as that they can only take $100 per day and have to make at least two withdrawals, along with having to move at least five miles every 48 hours. The participants obviously know the rules before they being the hunt, so sharing the information with the viewers doesn't really affect any future seasons, since those participants would know about them as soon as they were selected for the show. Little changes is all it would take to make this required viewing for me.

[waving feather]

I skipped the last 2 episodes because the hunters really annoyed me. I loved the Wolves taunting the hunters. They know this is a game, so I like them actively trying to play the game, win or lose. Might as well have fun with it. Some of the couples are too fearful of the hunters and that actually get them caught faster IMO. And Lee's wife hashtag was on point, because that's how that one hunter taunted her on the phone. #isYOURbloodpressurerisingnow

Go, Blaze. He doesn't give a f about those men verbally intimidating him. 

I have not liked the way the hunters interrogate family and friends but I did appreciative how the British dude talked to English's sister on Skype. He fished around and observed her answers but he was professional and non-threatening. So, props to British dude.

I don't think it's fair to say Emily is dead weight for David. They have made decisions together and worked well with each other and she hasn't done anything stupid on the run (aside from her calender, but that's before the run).

Hoping David/Emily, the Wolves and Aarif/Iman takes home the win and the edit points to that as well. 

[loki567]

I agree that Emily hasn't been a liability to David. The show almost seems to be making the argument that she's holding it together better than David, who's gets twitchier every episode. 

It is funny that the Hunters are laser focused on David though. Usually when they refer to the other teams, they always use both names Aarif/Iman, Lee and Hilmar, etc. With David and Emily, they constantly use him or he. Said it before, but I think there's an extra level of focus on David because of him being a criminal defense attorney who's criticized the police.  The hunters seem to have a special mission there.

[GeorgiaRai]

I was cringing at father-to-be desperate, whiney need to see his wife and was actually hoping it would got them caught UNTIL I saw the epic "taunting" FB post.  The level of pissed-off in the Blitzer Room was definitely worth the risk of the flight.  I'm thinking the point is to have the hunters track the plane's next flight (using the system explained by the pilot) to throw them off track.  I hope this was the plan all along, because if the guy was really just this homesick, he sucks and should turn himself in.

Aarif & Iman FTW!

[MarkHB]

I'm assuming the app they were talking about in that bit is FlightAware.  It's cool for finding out "what's that plane way overhead?"

[kharley]

What I want to know is why didn't Lee and Hilmar, since they apparently have access to a plane, have the pilot take them half way across the hunt area instead of flying the wife in?  The airport they were at was in southwest Georgia; fly to northeast Georgia and hike the Appalachian Trail for the rest of the 28 days, or fly to Myrtle Beach, or Tampa, etc.  Or fly to some small town whose airport has no control tower - there are hundreds of those to choose from -   and therefore has less plane and people traffic to witness your arrival.

[Nashville]

26 minutes ago, kharley said:

What I want to know is why didn't Lee and Hilmar, since they apparently have access to a plane, have the pilot take them half way across the hunt area instead of flying the wife in?  The airport they were at was in southwest Georgia; fly to northeast Georgia and hike the Appalachian Trail for the rest of the 28 days, or fly to Myrtle Beach, or Tampa, etc.  Or fly to some small town whose airport has no control tower - there are hundreds of those to choose from -   and therefore has less plane and people traffic to witness your arrival.

Probably because:

• Any flight around airports, congested airspace, or weather conditions requiring instrument flight rules (IFR) requires the pilot to file a detailed flight plan - and right smack dab in the middle of Georgia (and most of the hunt area) is Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), well-known to frequent air travelers as (very literally) the busiest airport in the world.
• Even if a flight is using visual flight rules (VFR), the pilot must contact FAA Air Traffic Control if any part of the flight enters ATC-managed airspace - which means the flight may still be trackable.

Best not to take the flight, but make the hunters wonder whether or not you took the flight.

[kharley]

You fly around big airports and their airspace - which is clearly marked on the sectionals.  You fly VFR.  You turn off the transponder - which is not required unless in controlled airspace (there are many older planes that do not have transponders - some don't even have radios).  You don't fly in bad weather. There are many non-controlled airports and even private strips (most are marked on the sectionals) that could be utilized.

[Nashville]

51 minutes ago, kharley said:

You fly around big airports and their airspace - which is clearly marked on the sectionals.  You fly VFR.  You turn off the transponder - which is not required unless in controlled airspace (there are many older planes that do not have transponders - some don't even have radios).  You don't fly in bad weather. There are many non-controlled airports and even private strips (most are marked on the sectionals) that could be utilized.

If you are able, sure.  But VFR flight isn't a simple unilateral choice - and the longer the trip, the more likely you'll run into traffic-congested areas and/or weather conditions prohibiting VFR.  Which may have been the case on Lovey-Dovey Flight Day.

Perhaps you misunderstood the nature of my post.  I wasn't saying it couldn't be done; I was postulating a response to your question as to why it wasn't done, on that particular day.

Also - the Escape Bros were tracking the plane's inbound progress at the airport.  Isn't ATC the source for that data feed?

[TheRabbi]

It also looked like a tiny plane. Maybe it wouldn't have room for the pilot, wife, both guys, camera guy, his equipment, etc (do they have a sound guy with them as well like the Race teams do?).

I agree it would have been a good tactic, but let's be honest, if they had flown out of there, then the hunters would have had some grand revelation about seizing some security camera that miraculously appeared there, grabbed the tail number, and tracked it to wherever they landed.

If I had to guess, I would say that 'no flying' is probably part of the rules.

[Wings]

The aircraft is a Beechcraft Bonanza 36 and holds 6 people.  There is plenty of room for them to be flown to another location.  Even back home!  The pilot was okay gifting them the fuel so going too far away was not in the cards.  Seems clear another rule, we don't know, says they cannot travel by air, though. 

Edited February 18, 2017 by wings707

[kharley]

Quote

Also - the Escape Bros were tracking the plane's inbound progress at the airport.  Isn't ATC the source for that data feed?

The pilot apparently filed a flight plan (probably because of the thunderstorms on the radar) - which is not required in the VFR conditions required to make a clean getaway for a Hunted team.

Quote

I agree it would have been a good tactic, but let's be honest, if they had flown out of there, then the hunters would have had some grand revelation about seizing some security camera that miraculously appeared there, grabbed the tail number, and tracked it to wherever they landed.

HAHAHA!  So true!

If I were David and Emily,  I would have tried to find a pickup or semi that I could toss the phone in.  Let that truck lead the Hunters off in the wrong direction.

[teo47]

14 hours ago, TheRabbi said:

It also looked like a tiny plane. Maybe it wouldn't have room for the pilot, wife, both guys, camera guy, his equipment, etc (do they have a sound guy with them as well like the Race teams do?).

I agree it would have been a good tactic, but let's be honest, if they had flown out of there, then the hunters would have had some grand revelation about seizing some security camera that miraculously appeared there, grabbed the tail number, and tracked it to wherever they landed.

If I had to guess, I would say that 'no flying' is probably part of the rules.

They seemed pretty concerned about the hunters possibly catching on to the flight, so I am not surprised that they didn't fly somewhere themselves even if it is within the rules.  I don't think the hunters have any clue where these two are going and they will win without much drama at all, unless the producers can manufacture some with their 'some parts of the show are replicated' editing. 

[MarkHB]

It just occurred to me, I hope the producer and crew guys get some sort of bonus pay if they have to sleep in storage sheds in a parking lot as well.