The pilot of a cessna 150 experienced a partial power loss during climb and successfully returned to...

Narrative:

Upon initial climbout; the power dropped from around 2;500 RPM at full throttle to 2;000 RPM at about 300 ft AGL. The issue was noticed immediately as the aircraft was no longer climbing and a call was made to the tower to return to land on the closest available runway. There was also an open field on the south side of the runway in case there was a total power loss. The power available was enough to return to land on runway xx where a landing was made without incident. Upon landing; the aircraft was taxied to park at a tie down spot until it could be inspected by an authorized mechanic. In december of 2013; a valve was stuck on one of the cylinders. Our mechanic then cleaned each valve to ensure that this would not happen again and there have not been any other incidents since they were cleaned. This could possibly be the source of the issue but until he has the opportunity to inspect the aircraft again; it is not certain what caused the partial power loss.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The pilot of a Cessna 150 experienced a partial power loss during climb and successfully returned to the departure airport. A cracked engine cylinder was later discovered to be the cause of the malfunction.

Narrative: Upon initial climbout; the power dropped from around 2;500 RPM at full throttle to 2;000 RPM at about 300 FT AGL. The issue was noticed immediately as the aircraft was no longer climbing and a call was made to the Tower to return to land on the closest available runway. There was also an open field on the south side of the runway in case there was a total power loss. The power available was enough to return to land on Runway XX where a landing was made without incident. Upon landing; the aircraft was taxied to park at a tie down spot until it could be inspected by an authorized mechanic. In December of 2013; a valve was stuck on one of the cylinders. Our Mechanic then cleaned each valve to ensure that this would not happen again and there have not been any other incidents since they were cleaned. This could possibly be the source of the issue but until he has the opportunity to inspect the aircraft again; it is not certain what caused the partial power loss.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1171087
Time
Date	201405
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna 150
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

The pilot of a cessna 150 experienced a partial power loss during climb and successfully returned to the departure airport. A cracked engine cylinder was later discovered to be the cause of the malfunction.