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As the USS Shenandoah approached Fort Worth Naval Air Station, it faced the first major challenge of the trip. Captain Lansdowne needed to bring the airship to a mooring mast that he was unfamiliar with. Moffet wrote:
"Captain Lansdowne had never been to Fort Worth and had never seen the mast there, but he approached the city with the greatest confidence, found the mast without difficulty, brought the ship down without valving helium, and we were soon secured to it...The ship’s line is dropped when about 400 feet from the ground and 500 feet horizontally from the mast. The two lines are connected and the ship hauled down. Bringing an airship to the mooring mast is a very delicate operate, and requires nerve, coolness, skill, and a complete knowledge of the airship. It is a much more difficult operation than bringing a great surface vessel into port, and requires seamanship of the highest order."
