90 days outside EU?

You SHOULD be ok, as an application for Residencia / appeal “stops the clock” on the 90/180 count.

Bring as much proof back as possible if I was you.

Thank you very much for both replies   I chickened out and changed the flights. So now we have a full 90 clear days.

Just a general point on appeals.  I applied for residencia in 2020 using my Irish passort which caused them a certain amount of consternation because my NIE had my UK passport number.  So from then on the application seemed jinxed.  Eventually they refused on the basis that I didn't have health cover even though I submitted my S1 form from the UK which clearly showed I had health cover.  I wondered about an appeal, but decided the quicker route would be to submit a fresh application in the hope this would get past all the knots that seemed to exist in the first one.  Did this - cost me an extra 12EU I seem to recall, and got things through v quickly.  I'm not sure whether that is necesarily the position now, but as an ex civil servant who subsequnetly spent most of my  working life arguing cases against cetnral and local government in the UK, I suspected that appeal would cause a whole load of extra people examining the file and trying to find something they could say was my fault.  It may not be possible to submit a new applicaiton if you have already lodged an appeal but it might be worth checking out.