Narrative:

Upon calling in range; I put in a fuel order for 25 gal per side. I only had 30 min on the ground; so I had the mindset of doing a quick turn. As I exited the airplane; I saw the fuel truck driving towards me so I figured the phone call had been made to the fuel truck. I went in to ops; checked the weather; and did a weight and balance. When I came out to the airplane; the passengers were standing there waiting for me to board; so I felt a little rushed. I went through the before start to the line and verified with the checklist; then briefed the passengers. I must have skipped the below the line (including verifying fuel quantity). I taxied out and did a runup; but again failed to verify fuel quantity. I took off and once the autopilot was engaged I went to set my new fuel quantity and that's when I noticed I had never been fueled. Conditions were VFR so I returned to [departure airport] for a landing.I think the mindset of trying to quick turn had me rushing things and skipping checklists. I need to slow down and not let external pressures; (such as trying to get the flight out on time) stop me from doing my job correctly. Quality of piloting is much more important than speed. I think I was just a little too complacent with the checklists lately. I will slow things down from now on and verify that each aspect of the checklist is accomplished in its entirety.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C-402 Pilot reported returning to departure airport after realizing the ordered fuel had never been boarded.

Narrative: Upon calling in range; I put in a fuel order for 25 gal per side. I only had 30 min on the ground; so I had the mindset of doing a quick turn. As I exited the airplane; I saw the fuel truck driving towards me so I figured the phone call had been made to the fuel truck. I went in to Ops; checked the weather; and did a weight and balance. When I came out to the airplane; the passengers were standing there waiting for me to board; so I felt a little rushed. I went through the before start to the line and verified with the checklist; then briefed the passengers. I must have skipped the below the line (including verifying fuel quantity). I taxied out and did a runup; but again failed to verify fuel quantity. I took off and once the autopilot was engaged I went to set my new fuel quantity and that's when I noticed I had never been fueled. Conditions were VFR so I returned to [departure airport] for a landing.I think the mindset of trying to quick turn had me rushing things and skipping checklists. I need to slow down and not let external pressures; (such as trying to get the flight out on time) stop me from doing my job correctly. Quality of piloting is much more important than speed. I think I was just a little too complacent with the checklists lately. I will slow things down from now on and verify that each aspect of the checklist is accomplished in its entirety.

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.