Early on I see nothing wrong with flying as much as you can, and it will be a definite benefit when you come to do circuits. However, once you reach the Nav trips then I reckon FFF's 5 hours is a realistic limit, even without considering the exams.
I did a simple navex yesterday - just out to a turning point 30nm from the airfield and back again. I always knew where I was, the waypoints appeared when and where I expected them and when I drifted off track I corrected OK - seems fine. However, I was so busy keeping track of position that other things suffered (RT, checks, keeping height and heading etc.), so there's a lot that I need to learn from that last trip before I do the next one - otherwise I'll just make the same mistakes again (I'll make some of them anyway, of course, and some new ones). If you're trying to fit in a couple of trips a day then I don't think there's enough time to do that after every flight. If you've got money to burn you could ignore your personal post-flight debrief and just keep flying Nav trips until you get it, but at £100+ per hour that's an expensive way to learn.
For what it's worth, I'm doing two trips a week (each an hour at the moment), which is about the limit of what I could usefully do when combined with work. If I took a week off I'd probably do four or five, so I reckon FFF is spot on.
Last edited by Evo7; 27th Jun 2002 at 12:57.