I would not like to do that last recovery, with no landing gear. As in "none" - the F9C did not have a retractable gear. They just removed it for routine airship ops. I guess if you were 1000 miles out to sea it didn't matter.
But the real problem is that you're hooking on to a bloody US Navy airship, with nothing stronger than a Coke to look forward to. Savages!