know it probably doesn't help much but...
...I learnt more about flying from my mistakes than I did my flawless flights. I know it was an expensive mistake but at least you have learnt one hell of a lesson from it. I guess that's how you get experience from all of those hours.
Certainly a great posting and acts as a strong reminder of what P1 actually is.
Thanks Pompey. As the other poster has since written I did learn a very valuable lesson and as he can probably imagine my CFI has been very supportive of my situation. But my comment about the other pilot involved being left free to do a the same again should no, in my opinion, have let off without a safety check flight.