There's absolutely nothing wrong with a big time scale, I began in 2006 and had to pause my training for 5 yrs (education/travel) but I never lost those hours and just picked up from where I left it. I resumed last may and I'm not too far from finishing. This has all revolved around my full time job (where else is the dosh going to come from?) and other commitments and its been no problem at all, just do the exam study in the evenings or on lunch breaks, stay committed and all will be well.
The only downside is like yourself I'm flying out of shoreham and with its micro climate ways, spending weekends on the ground can become very frustrating but persevere at least you can save the money!
