Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
How many good ConFed pilots lost their lives one way or another through Maniac's flying? Catscratch almost did, depending on how you faired in that mission.
I think you're making a mistake in thinking that because Maniac serves as comic relief that he must therefore be incompetant or dangerous. In the final analysis, he was unquestionably one of the Confederation's most notable war heroes. He's recognized, next to Blair, as being one of the war's two finest ace pilots... and unlike Blair, he served in combat roles regularly from his Academy graduation through the Nephilim invasion. Even the Temblor Bomb mission would not have succeded without Maniac covering Blair's wing. He's a very, very important guy.
Catscratch was endangered for *immitating* Maniac, not because Maniac put him in some particularly dangerous situation and abandoned him. I'm pretty sure I can go out and get myself killed trying to act like John Wayne -- but that shouldn't reflect poorly on the Duke.
(And, of course, the pedant would point out that Catscratch was *not* a ConFed pilot at that point in WC4...)
Several of his "Wild Eagles" test-pilot squadron did, didn't they?
Only one Wild Eagle died in Special Operations 2 (not counting Minx), and it had nothing to do with Maniac. Crossbones was killed by a bomb on the Concordia's flight deck.