 Promoted to "generale di divisione aerea" (air divisional general) and made deputy chief of staff of the "Regia Aeronautica", Pinedo joined Balbo in leading the second mass-formation flight, a 3,300-mile (5,314-km) circuit of the Eastern Mediterranean in June 1929 by 35 "Regia Aeronautica" seaplanes – 32 Savoia-Marchetti S.55s, two Savoia-Marchetti S.59s, and one CANT 22 – with stops at Taranto, Italy; Athens, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; Varna, Bulgaria; Odessa in the Soviet Union; and Constanta, Romania.Pinedo and Balbo later had a falling out after Balbo decided that the Italian government would support no more long-distance flights by single aircraft, which Pinedo preferred, and would instead focus its efforts on mass formation flights, and Pinedo played no role in Balbo's January 1931 mass-formation crossing of the South Atlantic Ocean.After the "Four Continents" flight, Pinedo increasingly carried out duties in diplomatic and administrative posts that kept him out of the headlines.