Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 42; Flight Crew Total 375; Flight Crew Type 268
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport
Aircraft
I was providing landing instruction to a pre-solo student. We had completed 3 touch and goes with no issues. On the landing of the incident; my student brought the flap lever from 30 degrees to 0 degrees and advanced the throttle to full power. Almost immediately after full power we rotated at about 45 knots; much slower than normal rotation speed. Admittedly; I thought that my student had just aggressively pulled back on the yoke and that is why we rotated so early. I had him lower the nose in order to gain some airspeed; however we were not gaining airspeed at a normal rate. We were airborne above the runway and I thought about landing back on the runway in front of us but was hesitant because I wasn't sure if we had sufficient runway length.At this point I took control of the airplane and attempted to climb while maintaining no less than 60 knots of airspeed. We were barely climbing at full power; so I began to look for a potential field or road that would suffice for an emergency landing. This was when my student notified me that our flaps were still in the extended position of 30 degrees. I attempted to re-cycle the flaps with the switch but the flaps did not retract. I then notified the tower that we were unable to climb off the departure end of runway because our flaps were stuck in the extended position. Tower then cleared us for landing on any runway provided we were able to make it back to the airport. At this point we were about 400; maybe 500 AGL (Above Ground Level); and I began a very shallow left turn back to the airport with the intent to land on the runway (opposite the takeoff direction.) We were able to make the turn for a final approach. I landed the airplane with no issues and safely taxied the airplane back to our flight school. We did not require assistance from airport operations.
C172 flight instructor reported the flaps would not retract after takeoff during a touch-and-go; and returned to departure airport.