Hi Wilky,
its a difficult call for sure. It seems your applying commonsense, which is a good thing.
I wish you well in the future, i know how tough it can be.
If i was doing it all again, i would have aimed to minimise costs by heading to the States, get the licence and build hours. They had career development loans back then, not sure if they still exist tho.
As an aside you might know a few mates of mine, one ex RM for 22 yrs and another working rope access in the north sea !. Both Scottish lads.
Rgds.