Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100; Flight Crew Total 850
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport
Aircraft
During a training flight with a student we experienced an intermittent alternator failure. Once I realized that this had occurred; I told my student that we were going to go back to [ZZZ] to land. I contacted the Tower telling them that we had experienced an alternator failure and that we requested to land. The Tower cleared us to land Runway XX and said that they would clear the area of traffic so that if we lost our radios we can still come straight in. I went through the standard procedure of identifying the problem with the alternator; shutting down equipment to save battery life; and running the checklist related to an alternator failure. We landed uneventfully and taxied back to the flight school to notify Maintenance.
C-172 Flight Instructor reports an alternator failure in flight.