Crj-200 captain reported the left engine developed power fluctuations shortly after takeoff. The cre...

Narrative:

Right after takeoff we feel that something is not right as the plane's nose is oscillating slightly; as I adjust power I notice left engine N1; itt; N2 and fuel flow is fluctuating and constantly changing. Fuel flow varies about 200 lbs/hr and N1 is varying a little more than 1%. I reduce power on the left engine to 75% N1 where it was stable; when I then added climb power again; it returned to the fluctuating state again.we decided to return to ZZZ and requested to maintain 12000 ft and get vectors back to ZZZ. We coordinated with dispatch and made sure we were below max landing weight. Center very quickly got us lined up and cleared us for the approach. At the gate I called maintenance control and explain to them the details of all the engine parameters. We did not run the QRH; mainly because the fluctuations were small and did not lead me to think about something to look up there. And looking at it afterwards I believe turning the speed switches off might have been helpful; but had that not resolved they problem; shutting down the left engine would have been excessive.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-200 Captain reported the left engine developed power fluctuations shortly after takeoff. The crew elected to return to the departure airport and landed without incident.

Narrative: Right after takeoff we feel that something is not right as the plane's nose is oscillating slightly; as I adjust power I notice left engine N1; ITT; N2 and fuel flow is fluctuating and constantly changing. Fuel flow varies about 200 lbs/hr and N1 is varying a little more than 1%. I reduce power on the left engine to 75% N1 where it was stable; when I then added climb power again; it returned to the fluctuating state again.We decided to return to ZZZ and requested to maintain 12000 ft and get vectors back to ZZZ. We coordinated with dispatch and made sure we were below max landing weight. Center very quickly got us lined up and cleared us for the approach. At the gate I called Maintenance Control and explain to them the details of all the engine parameters. We did not run the QRH; mainly because the fluctuations were small and did not lead me to think about something to look up there. And looking at it afterwards I believe turning the speed switches off might have been helpful; but had that not resolved they problem; shutting down the left engine would have been excessive.

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	1412559
Time
Date	201612
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe

Crj-200 captain reported the left engine developed power fluctuations shortly after takeoff. The crew elected to return to the departure airport and landed without incident.