You need to disarm yourself of the notion that DL will take longer than full-time in a classroom. Many take a DL course, but are full-time working on it - i.e. 8-10 hrs per day, everyday. You can therefore complete it in the same time as a full-time course, or indeed, in a shorter time-frame. There were people at my school who were done in four months.
At the moment, there are 14 subjects you need to pass for the JAA ATPLs (A).