2025-08 · NASA ASRS report 2276596
Light aircraft instructor pilot reported safely returning to departure airport after experiencing loss of power shortly after takeoff.
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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