PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30; Flight Crew Total 7600; Flight Crew Type 3000
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport
Aircraft; Weather
Landed from IFR flight for fuel and update on weather for flight to home base. Upon rotation from runway; the engine started backfiring. With no remaining runway left; I called tower and said I was going to land on [a different runway]. They cleared me to land and I successfully landed and taxied to ramp. Repair station on field determined the problem to be with exhaust stack and muffler. Tower did call a fire truck out to the ramp however.While this may not seem to be that big of an occurrence; there is one major takeaway from this event. Mainly plan an IFR departure in low ceiling conditions carefully. I was very lucky because I was able to maneuver the aircraft at a low altitude on essentially an upwind on [departure runway] then base to final on [another runway] while maintaining visual contact with the terrain and the runway.Going forward when I depart IFR from an airport with a single runway; I will make sure I have enough ceiling and visibility to allow either a full pattern at sufficient and safe altitude back to the departure runway or execute a 180 degree turn back for landing.
The pilot of a PA28-180 reported an engine problem during takeoff toward IMC conditions. A low altitude return to the field was made in VFR conditions below the ceiling.