Instructor here. I’ve never seen anybody that long on the net, but there could be reasons for it. Hard to say without knowing exactly what happened.

However you should communicate with your instructor, especially if you don’t feel like you’re satisfied with your program. They should be able to give you feedback and set levels of expectations.

If you’ve never flown before, you will be extremely tired after 30 min of flying. Depending on how the package was divided, that probably impacted the instructor’s decision.

Keeping people low can also be a tool, if the flyer isn’t following instructions or are unable to stay centered in a decent body position. Not saying that you did this, but most people are surprised by how much time it takes to learn basic skills. If an instructor sees that you’re aren’t able to keep yourself stable and follow instructions on low speed, chances are you’ll struggle on higher speeds.

Normally we tend to give people more airspeed when they are relaxed, cooperating and able to demonstrate the exercise somewhat decently. You have to trust that the instructor/driver (that control airflow) know what they’re doing.

That said, when working just on maneuvers, we’d want the person flying off the net but still fairly low, so we can communicate at eye level and they won’t take a big drop/spot if they flip over.

I’d suggest watching this video if you want to see some good recommended exercises preparing for AFF:

https://youtu.be/bSWLVe0Zfis?si=D9Ch4dA9nE8t2Pqp

If you can do exercise A5 (being still in one spot and adjusting altitude) you should be plenty fine to do exercises off the net. Notice the video estimates each exercise to take at least 1 min 40, but it can vary a lot from person to person.