SAS
The “home front” pressure one can’t do much about. Sadly, this is an activity mainly for those who have a decent income and who have control of what it gets spent on. Unless you get a spouse who also likes flying; rare but possible… With a family, one needs a really big income, say £60k+, to be flying reasonably frequently – unless again you have a very supportive wife who shares the hobby rather than insisting that she spends an equivalent amount on something for herself
I would regard 30 mins (say 20 miles) as the absolute max to drive.
FFF
Forget all old planes. They will do the business no good at all. Yes they are adequate for PPL training but they are not acceptable to a quality customer.
As we have now discarded the spamcans
that leaves Options 2 and 3 only. Actually the price is pretty good; I used to pay £120/hr inc VAT for a really knackered PA28-181 self fly hire with no working nav instruments.
Why not the IMC Rating? It’s essential for serious UK touring. If you don’t have it, there are likely to be periods of 2-3 months in the winter when you won’t fly. Even in the summer it is often IMC-like, with haze and no horizon to speak of.
Air Far
I think a school selling shares in its fleet would be a great scheme. That way, when it has sold off a complete plane, in say 10 shares, it can buy a brand new one for little money.