SFG,
The majority of people you will find posting on Proon or elsewhere have never had to deal with a serious airborne problem. It is to your credit - especially with next to no experience - that you haven't either, because by concentrating on keeping the thing the right way up and asking for help early enough you prevented your problem from turning into a crisis, so - well done.
Things to do next ? I'd suggest getting some real instrument time and training in, but you've already thought of that. Obviously, next time you launch on something like this, you'll be making sure you know how all the toys work before you go, so that's covered too.
What's left ? Well, buying your pax an enormous bunch of flowers and charging them to the "instructor" who never showed you what less than ideal viz actually looks like springs to mind ... I don't know if most instructors do, but they ALL bloody well should at some point !
FF
