On May 24th, 1928, Mr. Miguel A. Zúñiga, Manager of Foreign Sales of the B.F. Mahoney Aircraft Corporation issued the following message:

"San Diego, California, May 24th. Carranza departed this afternoon at 3:20, California time towards Mexico City. The weather was cloudy upon takeoff. Aviator Carranza has sufficient fuel for a 20 hr flight. We calculate there would be no stops in his flight plan as he will be airborne for about 18 hrs. Upon news that Carranza had decided to initiate his flight, the airfield filled with enthusiastic people."

After taking off from Camp Kearny in San Diego, Carranza's flight plan took him over the following waypoints:

• Mexicalli 4:35 pm,

• Guaymas, 11:35 pm, and south east along the western coast of Mexico. His flight over Guaymas was relayed immediately by telegraph to Mexico City and San Diego.

• Mazatlán at 4:00 am on May 25th. Thereafter, several long hours passed without sightings of the "Mexico-Excelsior", Carranza encountered a thick fog bank along the coast south of Mazatlán and headed out over the Pacific around the fog bank.

• Finally at 7:50 am he was sighted over Ixtlán.

• Guadalajara at 8:40 am.

• Ymécuaro at 9:30 am. By now, news of the historic non-stop flight from San Diego to Mexico City had captivated the entire country. On the morning of the 25th of May, the President gave all government employees the day off so they could welcome Carranza at the airfield. By 11am, senior government officials including President Calles, his Cabinet, and members of the Diplomatic Corps had assembled at Balbuena airfield to welcome Carranza.

At 12:02 a the faint outline of the "Mexico-Excelsior" was first sighted and the crowd started yelling: -Ya viene..! (He's coming..!), Viva Mexico...!, Viva Carranza...! Four minutes later, at 12:04 pm Emilio Carranza landed on Mexican soil to a hero's welcome.

A few days later, Carranza described the "Mexico-Excelsior" to a reporter from the Excelsior:

"There is no better aircraft than the Mexico-Excelsior. When I took off from San Diego, I did it within 120 m and I was already airborne when I heard the enthusiasm of the factory workers and mechanics that had built the airplane. They were pleased with the way in which the aircraft gained altitude in such a short run. Afterwards, during the first 20 minutes of flight, when I had to gain enough altitude to cross over the high mountains towards Mexicali, I noticed how easily the aircraft gained altitude. This airplane is undoubtedly the best, not only in Mexico, but in the United States and for this reason I want to make special mention of the builders. The Mahoney and Ryan Companies who enthusiastically built the airplane. They assigned their best personnel and worked long hours to produce an extremely good product, that I'm sure cost much more than they charged."