Light aircraft instructor pilot reported safely returning to departure airport after experiencing loss of power shortly after takeoff.

2025-08 · NASA ASRS report 2276596

Date: 2025-08 · Aircraft: Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172 · Phase: takeoff

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical

Synopsis

Light aircraft instructor pilot reported safely returning to departure airport after experiencing loss of power shortly after takeoff.

Narrative

Started off by filling IFR from ZZZ to ZZZ2; after a long wait for fuel we cancelled our IFR flight plan and decided to fly from ZZZ to ZZZ1 visual for fuel (sitting at 10-13 gallons a side); pre flighted aircraft and no contaminants were found in the fuel; got in the aircraft engine started up all instrument were green; tower initially gave runway XX; instructor requested runway XY; did the engine run-up holding short of XY; mag drop showed about 100 RPM then 75 RPM; carb heat showed about 150-200 RPM drop; instruments were all green; did our idle check; good idle wasn't rough; idled around 650 RPM; then took runway for departure; student rotated at 55 indicated; immediately after rotation student pointed out a high oil pressure (was sitting on the high pressure line); engine immediately dropped to 2000 RPM and running rough; instructor took controls checked mixture throttle and carb heat were all full in; and called tower; I then determined given the altitude; airspeed (70 indicated); and location to the field I could make the turn back to the airport; after making the decision instructor notified ATC of the decision was cleared to land any runway; upon reaching the runway power immediately returned to max RPM prior to touchdown; I then pulled power to idle and carb heat out and landed on runway XZ; student and instructor hit the brakes was able to exit runway XZ on Taxiway 1; taxied into the XX pad and did a quick walk around and checked fuel sample again; also not seeing any fuel contaminates.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

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