I have an A&P and it came in handy as I was building my time with single pilot piston. I was able to work on down days doing light maintenance. As you get into jet a/c it really dosent help anymore because the mechanic needs to go to school on the type of jet you are flying, and with all the paperwork, it gets to be pretty time consuming. Right now all I can do is change a landing light ! pretty good for 2 years of school huh? You would never have any time off if you had to keep up on the maintenance and flight side of things.