I too had a plane booked today for my QXC but it was a non starter with less than 5k vis. This was my third attempt in the last 7 days. At least today I didn't get airbourne as it was an obvious no-go.
My two previous attempts (last Thursday and Saturday) were both aborted on the first leg when unforecast low cloud made flying VFR over the mountains of mid-wales to Shobdon impossible.
In total my QXC attempts have cost me 3 hours 20 minutes of flying time, but I have to say that it was neither money or P1 time wasted as I learned more (particularily during my first attempt) than in any other lesson. The decision to turn back due to weather was the first real "pilot decision" that I have had to make and I was a little unprepared for the psyhcology involved. This being a QXC there was a certain expectation (both self-imposed and from others) that I would fly from A>B>C>A and the decision to turn back despite the lowering cloudbase, pretty severe turbulance and the rising terrain was surprising difficult. As soon as I had made the decision to turn back I knew instantly that I had made the correct decision and once got my headings and timings sorted out for my "diversion" back to base felt strangely elated that I had acted as I did.
Turning back on the second attempt having got even further along leg one (again due to lowering cloudbase) was in comparison, easy.
It occurs to me that a student pilot could get through pretty much all his PPL training without having to make any real divert or turn-back decisions which is maybe why "press-on-itus" leading to an incident / accident is such an oft reported scenario.
I have found the experiences to be really useful at this stage in my training and the debriefs with my instructor and others after each attempt have given me confidence in my decision making skills. HOWEVER - still frustrated as hell that I haven't completed the QXC yet.
Mr. W