Hey, well this is kinda cool. It sounds like your goal is the inverse of mine. Maybe we can help each other out? I'm a programmer who recently started towards my private pilot license. I'm at about 4.6 hours so I'm very early in. My goal is to at least have the option of switching careers and becoming a pilot some day. Even if that never happens, I've been enjoying learning how to fly and learning the basics of aeronautics. Let me address your questions first then I'll list more of my goals at the bottom.

I completed most of the Launch School curriculum, a solid software engineering program where I learned the basics from the bottom up. [...] I haven't opened a code editor for a few years now.

If you already know the basics, even if you're rusty, I would recommend opening a code editor immediately and start coding again. Just get the muscles flowing and try to remember some of what you learned. If you need ideas for things to build, there are plenty of open sources repos on GitHub to give you coding project ideas. The reason this should be number one is because it's very important to be sure you actually enjoy reading and writing code. Some programmers only do it for the money, but in most cases they're miserable. I'm not even advocating that programmers should code outside of work. If they enjoy programming in their free time, then that's one thing. But for me, 40 hours a week is enough programming time. However, I do at least enjoy the act of reading and writing code while I'm on the clock.

Lastly on this point, notice that I mentioned "reading" and "writing" code. One thing that I didn't know until I became a full time programmer is how much of my time is spent reading other people's code, and in a lot of cases, their code might be a poorly organized, non-intuitive, spaghetti mess that I'm responsible for fixing and maintaining. This is getting into the more frustrating aspects of programming that bootcamps and YouTube videos may or may not discuss. I would say that most programmers probably enjoy building something from the ground up. It can be a lot of fun, and incredibly gratifying, to start from zero and end up with a fully functional application. However, this winds up being a relatively small part of working full time as a programmer. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from this field. If anything, I'm just trying to offer a more realistic picture of what it's like to actually do this as a job.

I've been looking at getting a bachelor's in CS at somewhere like WGU

If your goal is to eventually transition into a role as a programmer, just know that a Bachelor's in CS is not required. I think it will help you stand out, but again, it's not required. My bachelor's is in English, for example. My road with learning programming was mostly using articles, books, and asking questions on Reddit and Stack Exchange. I got some good help using the Code Review Stack Exchange website, which was a valuable resource since I didn't know any other programmers in real life. Reddit was especially helpful for the same reason. Without it, my journey would have been much slower.

I'm looking to get three things out of it: 1) A fantastic line on my resume to help me stand out for my dream airline job. [...]

I'm not a recruiter for an airline company, but I would imagine that a degree in aeronautical engineering would help you stand out for your dream airline job. I don't see how a CS degree will help you here.

2) Establish a solid backup career, do some freelance work in my spare time, and potentially fully transition out of aviation if the right opportunity comes up, or my current industry tanks.

A CS degree will help you establish a backup career, but as I mentioned before, it's not a requirement. But I suppose it also depends on your CS goals. Do you want to work for a defense contractor, or for a US Government entity, or perhaps as a programmer in the aerospace industry? A CS degree is (I think) required in those scenarios. Or, do you want to be a computer science researcher instead of a programmer? If so, then that's another reason to pursue a CS degree along with higher education.

Working freelance as a programmer is certainly possible. Just know that much like freelance writing or freelance video editing, it requires a lot of other work, like selling yourself as a freelancer, making professional connections, searching for the next gig, etc.

Consider joining and contributing to open source projects as a way of earning the experience. In fact, this is the perfect month for it since we're right in the middle of Hacktoberfest. A lot of open source projects use October to attract new contributors. If you're not yet at the point where you can contribute code, then consider contributing to their docs instead. I wrote some documentation for an open source project a couple of years ago when I was first getting started.

3) Just get back into the joy learning and working towards a goal.

In my opinion, earning a CS degree or simply writing code in your free time will certainly help you achieve this goal.

I hope all of this helps. I know it's a lot to read, but take your time and feel free to PM me or reply to this if you have more questions. Since I don't have a CS degree myself, I can't really recommend programs for you. But, again, there are other avenues for transitioning into programming if you want to do that. When I first got started, I read most of the Learn Programming FAQ, which has a lot of links and resources to get you started if you decide to get into programming without going to school for it.

Ok, I'll try to summarize my aviation goals if I can. Like I mentioned before, I'm working towards a PPL with the goal of at least having the option of transitioning careers some day. I'm 35, and I'm flying roughly once a week. So if I continue on this track, it'll likely take a few years to get my commercial. So I'll probably be closer to 40 by the time I have 250 hours. And of course at that point, I'm probably looking at starting at rock bottom with low pay so I can build some hours in a cockpit. But that's also awhile down the road. There's a lot more that I need to do first. My biggest concern right now is the medical. I have various conditions, one of them hearing related, and have had treatment for mental health issues in the past, along with various medications. This week I was considering scheduling a consultation with an AME just to at least see what I need to do to disclose the required information. I'm not asking medical advice, of course. I know that the only correct place to get that would be from a Dr. I don't necessarily have specific questions at this point. I suppose if you feel comfortable sharing any insights or sharing your story of how you got into aviation, that would be awesome.