Beginning with March 9, 1909, the military _Zeppelin I_ was kept in active operation by the officers, and subjected to a wide variety of tests day by day. She was driven through rain and snowstorms, at all elevations up to a mile; she was anchored over land and over water, sometimes exposed for hours to a gale; she was steered in and out of her shed without the aid of her floating raft; she was sent on long trips, landed in the open country, by day and by night, and returned to harbor in safety. On one occasion she carried twenty-six passengers for over an hour and a half; again she made an endurance flight of thirteen hours. These maneuvers exhibited for the first time many capabilities of the ship, which all along had been stoutly affirmed by the inventor, but questioned by his critics. On April 1, 1909, at four o’clock in the morning, the renowned _Zeppelin I_, with the Count as helmsman, started through the rain and wind on a voyage from Friedrichshafen to Munich, a hundred miles distant. The ship followed the railway as far as Ulm, guided by the station lights, which were kept burning all night to mark the route. As she approached Munich, at the appointed hour of nine next morning, her approach was announced from afar by the droning of her machinery and propellers, whereupon she was welcomed by loud music from many bands and the joyous ringing of all the bells in the city. The Prince Regent of Bavaria and a great throng of applauding citizens awaited her at the Teresenhohe park. Presently the swift cruiser approached, sailing over the steeple tops like a monstrous arrow. She halted before the Regent and dipped her bow three times, in graceful salute. Then she circled widely over the city, intending to land at the Oberwiesenfeld Parade Grounds, where part of the garrison troops were drawn up to receive her. But now, while so near the goal, she found it difficult to stem the increasing gale, and unsafe to land; so, with her bow pointed to the city, and propellers humming furiously, she gradually yielded to the storm, and drifted slowly backward toward the northeast.