C172 pilot reported a precautionary return to the departure airport due to a rough running engine.

Attributes
ACN	1519934
Time
Date	201802
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Climb
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

As we were taking off from runway X; at about 300-400 AGL the airplane's engine started to run rough with a decrease in power; and sounded as if it was going to shut down. My reaction was turn back and land on the opposite runway since I was close to the airport and it was night time. Maybe next time an emergency like this happens I should assess the risk level due to the fact that it was only engine roughness. But the action I took was felt correct because of the fact that I had low altitude and low power I did not want to risk to continue upwind to try to climb and then not be close enough to the airport and not be able to land in a safe field.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 pilot reported a precautionary return to the departure airport due to a rough running engine.

Narrative: As we were taking off from Runway X; at about 300-400 AGL the airplane's engine started to run rough with a decrease in power; and sounded as if it was going to shut down. My reaction was turn back and land on the opposite runway since I was close to the airport and it was night time. Maybe next time an emergency like this happens I should assess the risk level due to the fact that it was only engine roughness. But the action I took was felt correct because of the fact that I had low altitude and low power I did not want to risk to continue upwind to try to climb and then not be close enough to the airport and not be able to land in a safe field.

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.