Date: 201508
Local time of day: 0001-0600
Location: ZZZ.TRACON, US
Flight conditions: VMC
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: SR22
Operating under: Part 91
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Ferry / Re-Positioning
Flight phase: Parked
Aircraft component: Fuel Tank Cap
Component problem: Improperly Operated
Reporter organization: Personal
Reporter function: Pilot Flying; Single Pilot
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Human factors: Distraction; Situational Awareness
Anomaly: Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Detector: Person Other Person
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Procedure
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: After landing I needed fuel to continue my trip back to home base. ZZZ only offers self serve fuel; something we as pilots are trained to do but do not do very often. I taxied the airplane to the self serve station and followed all procedures to refuel my airplane. I added a total of 12.5 gallons of fuel; 6 gallons on my right wing and 6.5 gallons on my left. After fueling I purposefully left the fuel caps on top of the wings with the intention to come back and visually check the fuel level before departure. After I was done fueling I forgot to do my final check of the airplane where I would have checked the fuel caps. I had never before flown into ZZZ; to me it was an airport with a lot of extra considerations with both location and environment. ZZZ is underlying class Bravo Airspace; it is also underlying the [Special[ airspace. In addition to that it is a 3;000 foot runway with a 1.2% gradient on the runway adding a lot of extra workload on me as a single engine IFR pilot. After refueling I started the engine; did my normal before takeoff check and runup; called  approach and got an IFR clearance.All indications were all normal except that I failed to notice that I was missing my fuel caps. I flew for about 1hr until I checked in with Approach. They advised me that a Cirrus fuel cap was found in ZZZ and they suspected it could be mine. Approach advised me that my company wanted me to land as soon as possible to see if I was missing some fuel caps. Approach immediately suggested me to go to ZZZ1 and I agreed since this was a good option for me at the time. I had the airport in sight and got cleared for the Visual runway 22. I did a normal landing. I made sure I stayed high on my approach in case I would have any issues with the engine. Landing was normal and on the ground I noticed I was missing both my fuel caps. I parked the airplane and followed procedures explained to me by my Director of Maintenance to cover the fuel tanks until the next day when our mechanic came with replacement fuel caps.I landed in ZZZ1 with plenty of fuel and had 49.6 gallons remaining upon landing. After refueling in ZZZ1; I noticed from my calculations I had lost about 3 gallons of fuel flying without fuel caps on. I have talked to both the Chief Pilot and Director of Safety about the event and they are working on procedures to avoid this happening in the future. Something that could be done to prevent this in the future could be to emphasize to always put fuel caps back on after refueling; even if you're planning on coming back to check the fuel level. It may be better take fuel caps on and off one extra time to avoid this ever happening again.




Synopsis: The pilot of a Cirrus SR22 failed to reinstall both fuel caps after self-serve fueling.