That's a great and inspiring story. I'm based in Sydney, to which the writer refers. I was fortunate to be able to purchase a 1964 model PA30 just last year, with which my father had a personal connection.
The story behind this story is that the Beech Baron and aircraft just like her will never be replaced by a self-flying a/c because they are designed for people who love to pilot aircraft. How extremely ironic!
Nice comment Darius. That is exactly why I keep a street directory in my glove compartment. And I qualified for an IFR rating for GPS based runway approaches. If we all lived in Utopia, then Sascha would have a point, but given the prevalence of totalitarian megalomaniacs around the world, thinking of PRC, Russia, N. Korea, Iran, then that is just a delusional pipe dream.
Just in regard to the (elevator) control surfaces moving in opposite directions, this is true for aircraft certified to the later requirements (maybe post approximately the late 1970's). The theory being to guard against jammed controls. It was not the case in the Fokker F28 for example, certified circa 1968, but would be true for the F100 circa 1987.
