Narrative:

[Student] is a student pilot that I have been teaching for the last few months. He was working on his private pilot license out of ZZZ. His total time was 29.8 and was ready for his first solo cross country. He had the required endorsements not only for solo and xc; but also night solo. These were given because [student] showed proficiency and knowledge from previous flight in which I was present in the airplane with him on a dual lesson. The day the incident happen we completed the long cross country flight. [Student] had multiple flights where he went ZZZ1. One time was for his night cross country dual flight that was completed two weeks ago. There were a total of two times that [student] had been to ZZZ1. During these flight he needed little to no instructor guidance to aviate; navigate and communicate enroute to ZZZ1. After seeing him show me his proficiency I gave him the cross country solo endorsement to ZZZ1. After looking at this navigation log before he went out everything was accurate and correct for the flight to and from.I was under the impression that [student] would have departed around xa:30. However he did not take off until approx. Xb:30. I warned [student] that it would be dusk or night on his return back to ZZZ. He already had his solo endorsement for night flight. He acknowledged this comment and said that he was prepared to come back at dusk. On his return flight from ZZZ1 it was dusk turning into night. I received a phone call from him in the air indicating to me that he was lost. I instructed him to follow the lost procedures which are the 5 C's. Confess; climb; conserve fuel; communicate and comply. In the communication part of this I told him to dial in [frequency] also known as TRACON so they can give him a squawk code and give him vectors back to ZZZ. At the time I did not know he had been flying around for 35-50 minutes. Then the connection gets lost on the telephone and I call TRACON. They inform me that he is pointed in the right direction towards ZZZ. I am now listening to ZZZ tower on live ATC to make sure he gets back safely and I could meet him on the ground at ZZZ. I then hear on the radio that he can no longer make any runway at ZZZ. He does not declare an emergency and makes a thought out decision to land on a road instead of trying to stretch the landing to a runway at ZZZ. I then drove my car to meet him at the airplane to see if he is okay. In all; [student] made a great execution of a power off landing off airport property and did not damage any person or property. To reiterate [student] had all the required endorsements and training to conduct a safe flight. Aeronautical decision making and lost procedures training was conducted prior to his first solo flight as well as during his training on the remainder of dual flights.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 student pilot reported loss of situational awareness that caused fuel starvation and an off airport landing.

Narrative: [Student] is a student pilot that I have been teaching for the last few months. He was working on his private pilot license out of ZZZ. His total time was 29.8 and was ready for his first solo cross country. He had the required endorsements not only for solo and xc; but also night solo. These were given because [Student] showed proficiency and knowledge from previous flight in which I was present in the airplane with him on a dual lesson. The day the incident happen we completed the long cross country flight. [Student] had multiple flights where he went ZZZ1. One time was for his night cross country dual flight that was completed two weeks ago. There were a total of two times that [Student] had been to ZZZ1. During these flight he needed little to no instructor guidance to aviate; navigate and communicate enroute to ZZZ1. After seeing him show me his proficiency I gave him the cross country solo endorsement to ZZZ1. After looking at this navigation log before he went out everything was accurate and correct for the flight to and from.I was under the impression that [Student] would have departed around XA:30. However he did not take off until approx. XB:30. I warned [Student] that it would be dusk or night on his return back to ZZZ. He already had his solo endorsement for night flight. He acknowledged this comment and said that he was prepared to come back at dusk. On his return flight from ZZZ1 it was dusk turning into night. I received a phone call from him in the air indicating to me that he was lost. I instructed him to follow the lost procedures which are the 5 C's. Confess; climb; conserve fuel; communicate and comply. In the communication part of this I told him to dial in [frequency] also known as TRACON so they can give him a squawk code and give him vectors back to ZZZ. At the time I did not know he had been flying around for 35-50 minutes. Then the connection gets lost on the telephone and I call TRACON. They inform me that he is pointed in the right direction towards ZZZ. I am now listening to ZZZ Tower on Live ATC to make sure he gets back safely and I could meet him on the ground at ZZZ. I then hear on the radio that he can no longer make any runway at ZZZ. He does not declare an emergency and makes a thought out decision to land on a road instead of trying to stretch the landing to a runway at ZZZ. I then drove my car to meet him at the airplane to see if he is okay. In all; [Student] made a great execution of a power off landing off airport property and did not damage any person or property. To reiterate [Student] had all the required endorsements and training to conduct a safe flight. Aeronautical decision making and lost procedures training was conducted prior to his first solo flight as well as during his training on the remainder of dual flights.

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.