C172 pilot reported loss of power in the pattern; resulting in a forced landing on a nearby road.

Narrative:

I was flying with VFR flight following. I had been cleared by departure to descend at pilot's discretion (from 2;500 feet) and contact tower. I contacted tower and was cleared to land. I completed my pre-landing checklist. As I descended to enter a right base; I was at about 800 feet when I reduced power to continue the descent and set up my turn to final. The engine sputtered. At that point I did not have any power. The prop was still turning. I moved the throttle in and out which confirmed no power. I contacted tower to let them know and then went to performing emergency procedures. At this point I was still descending and I chose to land on the road as it was close and appeared to be clear (I noticed traffic was held up at a stop light and there were no visible wires crossing the road.) I did not see another suitable landing area. I made my approach and landing and was able to use full flaps to slow my airspeed before touch-down. I slowed the aircraft down on the ground and then used the last bit of inertia to taxi off of the roadway. When I stopped; the engine was not running. I contacted tower to let them know where I had landed; they said they would send emergency response teams. I then shut off the fuel tanks; put the flaps up; turned off the master and ignition switches and got out of the aircraft and waited for emergency response to arrive.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 pilot reported loss of power in the pattern; resulting in a forced landing on a nearby road.

Narrative: I was flying with VFR flight following. I had been cleared by Departure to descend at pilot's discretion (from 2;500 feet) and contact Tower. I contacted Tower and was cleared to land. I completed my pre-landing checklist. As I descended to enter a right base; I was at about 800 feet when I reduced power to continue the descent and set up my turn to final. The engine sputtered. At that point I did not have any power. The prop was still turning. I moved the throttle in and out which confirmed no power. I contacted Tower to let them know and then went to performing emergency procedures. At this point I was still descending and I chose to land on the road as it was close and appeared to be clear (I noticed traffic was held up at a stop light and there were no visible wires crossing the road.) I did not see another suitable landing area. I made my approach and landing and was able to use full flaps to slow my airspeed before touch-down. I slowed the aircraft down on the ground and then used the last bit of inertia to taxi off of the roadway. When I stopped; the engine was not running. I contacted Tower to let them know where I had landed; they said they would send emergency response teams. I then shut off the fuel tanks; put the flaps up; turned off the master and ignition switches and got out of the aircraft and waited for emergency response to arrive.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1295194
Time
Date	201509
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 26 Flight Crew Total 273 Flight Crew Type 204
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical