Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 88.3; Flight Crew Total 754.7; Flight Crew Type 213.1
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
Aircraft; Human Factors
During flight on a practice VFR/VMC approach; the engine began sputtering. I swapped fuel tanks and it fixed the issue but I immediately began making my way to the nearest airport (ZZZ about 10NM from our location). Roughly 5-10 seconds later; the engine began sputtering again. I swapped the tanks again; and identified a location to set it down. A few seconds after swapping fuel tanks for the second time the engine quit. The auxiliary pump was on before the first instance of engine sputter and remained for the remainder of the flight. Once the engine quit and I realized I was not going to make ZZZ; so I [advised ATC] on XXX.YYY (ZZZ Approach). I advised Approach I was over the town of X and was going to set it down on a road in town. It was the only road that had enough lamp posts to where I could actually see the road. I executed the landing with no power. There was no damage done to any property or the aircraft; and there were no injuries or deaths.The conditions the night of the off field landing were night time (approximately 3 hours after sunset); winds from the south around 5 kts; 0% illumination with the moon still below the horizon at the time of the landing; and clear skies.The POH of the aircraft flown states at 75% power at the altitudes I was flying the aircraft should have been burning 10.5 gallons per hour. The 48 gallons total usable fuel capacity of the aircraft allows for appximately 4.5 hours of flight time before empty. We took off with full fuel. We ran out of fuel at 3.5 hours of Hobbs times. At the time of the engine stoppage; we should have had approximately 10 gallons/1 hour of fuel remaining.A new engine had just been installed on the aircraft. It had already flown on the new engine for approximately 2-3 hours when I was dispatched the aircraft for my flight. There was no fuel leak identified during the pre-flight. Or reported from the prior users of the aircraft.
PA-28 pilot reported that the engine began sputtering during approach and eventually stopped. Pilot executed a successful off-field landing.