Hi Apollo fans,
after a loooong stay on the Moon it's time to return to Earth. Unfortunately this is not possible with the beta release used for the outward journey, so you need to update to the latest Beta 20070607 as explained
here. There's no scenario incompatibility, so you can continue with a saved scenario. I personally started again from Earth, I had only 30% SPS fuel left, which was a little bit too less to return to the Earth properly, I needed to use the RCS for the TEC MCCs. It turned out that the LM was a little bit too heavy, additionally my TLC MCCs weren't perfect.
Launch, TLI and Transposition & Docking was the same. But this time I did only one MCC, again I waited for the automatic "it's time for correction" call happening at about T+60h. I again used the IMFD 4.6 BaseApproach program with the Moon as reference, "Fra Mauro-Base" as target (you need to type that actually), altitude 115k, "retrograde", approach for "Orbit-Insert" and a time to ejection of 600s (to have enough time before the burn). Then I used the IMFD map in plan mode to check the predicted trajectory and saw that my PeA (periapsis altitude) was much too low. So I increased the altitude in the BaseApproach program so that the map program (which is much more precise than any other prediction tool, including TransX, Transfer etc.) predicts a PeA of 115k (the screenshot shows 109.71k, but 115k would be better). So I needed just one quite small MCC (still bigger than the real ones):

The BaseApproach screen is already in burn vector (BV) mode, sorry. Perhaps I'll provide more comprehensive Quickstart Mode checklists similar to the TLI checklist for that in the wiki later.
Also the Simple AGC program P16 for the LOI burns is a little bit different now. Start P16 the same way as before, but now the first LOI burn (LOI1) stops earlier, so if your PeA was about 115 km before LOI1, your resulting orbit will be about 115 x 315 km. Apollo 11 and 12 then did a LOI2 burn to achieve a roughly circular orbit. To do that just execute P16 again at about 20min before next periapsis, your resulting orbit will be about 110 x 120 km. After LOI2 I had 35.6% SPS fuel left, which is fine for return to Earth. Apollo 14 and later didn't do a LOI2 burn but the DOI burn directly with the complete CSM/LM stack. That should be possible by using P17 in the CSM, but I didn't try that.
LM activation, undocking and landing was the same, so nothing noteworthy here. After landing I suggest to use the rover to visit Cone crater, thanks to Redburne the rover has great wheel and gear animations now:

Now it's really time to return back to the Earth. Make sure that the LEVA astronaut is back in the LM again (the rover is left behind on the Moon) and switch to the LM cockpit. Open OrbitMFD or MapMFD, select the CSM as target and wait until the CSM is about 1/4 orbit before passing over the landing site (i.e. you in the LM). Then do the following:
ENG ARM - ASC (panel 1)
Key in DSKY: V37E 12E
DSKY's R1 shows countdown to launch, you can use time acceleration up to about 1 min before launch, then switch back to 1x and, well, just do nothing. The LM ascent stage will separate, launch and put you in into an elliptical lunar orbit about 18 X 82 km, and close to coplanar with the CSM. After that the Simple AGC runs P34, the Transfer Phase Initiation (TPI) program. Please note that Apollo 11 and 12 used the coelliptic rendezvous procedure, which involves P32 and P33 before that, but I didn't try that. P34 shows a countdown to ignition:
R1: xx hours
R2: xx minutes
R3: xx.xx seconds
Again you can use time acceleration until about 2 min before the burn. P34 starts P42 automatically, which does the burn using the ascent engine. After that the Simple AGC runs P35, the Transfer Phase Midcourse (TPM) program. Again a countdown is displayed, this time the burn is executed by P41 using the RCS. After that P35 is executed again for the 2nd TPM burn, same procedure as usual.
At last the Simple AGC switches to P36, a fictitious program doing the final braking and station keeping. In reality this was done by the astronauts manually, and you can do it manually, too. Terminate P36 by keying V37E 00E, after that you can control the LM using Orbiter's rotational and linear RCS modes. But be careful with the linear RCS, the LM ascent stage uses the real LM thruster positions, which are the same as the descent stage (obviously) and aren't aligned with the center of gravity, so a lot of torque is produced and you need to compensate that.
P36 does all that automatically, I just did nothing during the complete ascent and rendezvous (as usual

). The DSKY shows
R1: Range x.xx km
R2: Rate x.x m/s
R3: Phase x.xx deg
During P36 I don't recommend time acceleration (or only in the beginning and 10x max.) and after a couple of minutes the LM will come to a stop with windows facing the CSM at a distance of 10 m. When velocities are damped, which again will take some time, but now time acceleration up to 10x is OK, the LM will pitch forward to present the docking port to the CSM. Change to the CSM and rotate it to "docking attitude". Then change to LM again and key V37E 00E. Finally change to CSM, give some linear forward RCS thrust and the CSM will capture and hard dock automatically, the trip to the lunar surface is finished.
Now it's time to return to the Earth with the CSM, so at first we need to get rid of the LM ascent stage:
CSM/LM FINAL SEP 1 (or 2) - unguard, up
For the trip home we'll do one big burn to leave lunar orbit, the TEI (Trans Earth Injection) burn, then do a couple of MCCs during Trans Earth Coast (TEC) and finally enter Earth's atmosphere for braking and landing. We won't enter Earth orbit, there's no "EOI" burn, so already the TEI burn aims at the landing (splashdown) point (or better the entry interface, a virtual point at which entry begins). Basically I did that using IMFD 4.6 as explained
here or
here using the following parameters:
Lon: -172°W
Lat: -27°S
Alt: 121.95k
ReA: 6.5°
Ant: 21°
Lon/Lat define the landing site, I hope I found the correct coordinates for Apollo 14. Again I used the IMFD map to optimize the burn in order to save fuel, which leads to the usage of 3 MFDs simultaneously, use the MFDs on the G&N panel below panel 122 for that.

This time I aimed for a PeA of 35k (this will be close to the real PeA when you are near enough to the Earth so that BaseApproach works precisely) and changed BaseApproach's Alt from 121.95k to 2.758 M by playing with this value to achieve that. Please note that Ant is wrong in this screenshot, it should be 21°.
I had the problem that the map was jumping between this display and "invalid burn data", I don't know how to avoid that, so help is very much appreciated.

I did the burn using IMFDs auto burn feature, but before that the RJ/EC needs to be disabled again:
SIG COND/DRIVER BIAS POWER 1/2 - OFF (panel 7)
I did the MCCs as explained here
here and again used the map for "altitude correction", still aiming at a PeA of 35k. In order to hit the entry interface (a virtual point in 121.95 k altitude, 21° before the landing point, if I understand IMFD correctly), not only the PeA but also the position of the periapsis (and so of the entry interface) is important. Unfortunately I'm not able to calculate that from the map data, so I did more MCC burns, the first burn when I entered Earth's SOI and then 2 or 3 more burns, the last one only a couple of hours before arrival. During the first burns you'll notice that the predicted PeA in the map is changing quite rapidly, so you need to guess an altitude so that PeA is about 35k when the burn starts. During the last burn it shouldn't be necessary to change the altitude from 121.95k, PeA should be about 35k anyway and the entry interface position will be fine after that burn, too.
About half an hour before periapsis (PeT) I began with the entry procedure, thanks Chode the Simple AGC does all the work:
Key V37E 61E
Flashing V06N61
XXX.XX Impact Latitude
XXX.XX Impact Longitude
+/-1 RollCode
Latitude and longitude are calculated based on a nominal reentry down-range (historical), and zero cross-range and should be close (i.e about +/- 1°) to the target landing site, -27°S and -172°W. Next I changed the predicted values to the target values:
V21E
-02700E
V22E
-17200
PRO
PRO
Flashing V06N60
XXX.XX Predicted maximum G force
XXXXX m/s Predicted velocity at entry interface
XXX.XX Entry angle
Enter PRO:
Flashing V16N63
XXXX.X predicted range from 0.05G to splash
XXXXX m/s predicted Velocity at 0.05G
XX XX min sec until 0.05G
I waited until R3 is at about 10 min, then PRO, program advances to P62
Flashing V50N25
00041 Checklist Code (perform CM/SM separation)
I did what the AGC told me:
AUTO RCS SELECT (16) - MNA or MNB (panel 8 )
SIG COND/DRIVER BIAS POWER 1/2 - AC1/2 (panel 7)
S/C CONT - CMC (check) (panel 1)
ELS LOGIC - unguard, up
CM RCS PRPLNT 1/2 - up, talkbacks gray (panel 2)
C/W CSM - CM
MAIN BUS TIE (2) - up (panel 5)
... and ...
CM/SM SEP 1 or 2 - unguard, up
... and the CM separates from the SM. After that the AGC controls the CM during entry, Chode explains that
here like this:
Enter PRO:
Flashing V06N61
XXX.XX Impact Latitude
XXX.XX Impact Longitude
+/-1 RollCode
Last chance to change the landing point (V21-25).
Enter PRO:
P63 takes over, display shows:
Flashing V16N64N
XXX.XX Drag Acceleration
XXXXX m/s Inertial velocity
XXXX.X km Range to splash
Attitude hold is engaged to orient correctly for entry interface. When Drag acceleration reaches 0.05G, program automatically advances to P64.
P64 (nominal)
If entering from Earth orbit (with entry angle around 2 to 3 degrees), should proceed to program 67.
If entering from trans-lunar orbit (with entry angle around 6 to 7 degrees), should stay in P64, attempting a constant drag level until sufficient energy is lost, then the AGC advances to P67.
P67:
Flashing V16N66
XXX.XX deg Commanded Bank Angle
XXXX.X km Downrange Error
XXXX.X km Crossrange Error
When your velocity drops low enough, P67 shuts off the control jets and displays:
Flashing V16N67
XXXX.X km Range to target splash
XXX.XX deg Present Latitude
XXX.XX deg Present Longitude
At about 7.5 km altitude the apex cover (forward heat shield) is jettisoned automatically and the drogue chute is deployed, at about 3.2 km altitude the main chutes are deployed. At 0 km altitude splashdown happens (what a surprise

), the main chutes are released automatically. Press "J" after landing to open the hatch and "J" again to enter the raft.

I had a quite smooth entry with about 8g maximum, range to target landing point was 7.7 km, I assume this is very well within the reach of the recovery forces.
Well, that's all, this time much more bugfixes and changes were necessary to complete the mission, so it wasn't that relaxing than the journey to the Moon, but I hope it's now possible again to fly complete Moon landing missions, not really historically correct, especially in the LM, but at least the "Orbiter way". Comments and suggestions are welcome as usual.
Cheers
Tschachim