Q400 captain reported encountering wake turbulence on climb out from ewr in trail of a B757 that res...

Attributes
ACN	1290604
Time
Date	201508
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	N90.TRACON
State Reference	NY
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Dash 8-400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	B757 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter

Narrative:

We were departing behind a heavy 757. Due to the recat we were cleared for take off 1 minute after the 757 was. I tried to delay the departure as much as possible by taxiing onto the runway slowly. As we were climbing out on the departure we ran into the 757's wake turbulence. It was a very severe vertical acceleration with a significant roll as well. The recat program should be rethought. I would like to see the evidence that a DHC8-D is safe to fly with 2.5 nm separation on a 757. I realize the program includes aircraft handling characteristics along with weight; but do these people realize the Q400 is a truck that can barely get out of its own way? From now on I will insist on more spacing when departing behind a heavy.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Q400 Captain reported encountering wake turbulence on climb out from EWR in trail of a B757 that resulted in 'very severe vertical acceleration with a significant roll'. Reporter suggested 'the RECAT program should be rethought'.

Narrative: We were departing behind a heavy 757. Due to the RECAT we were cleared for take off 1 minute after the 757 was. I tried to delay the departure as much as possible by taxiing onto the runway slowly. As we were climbing out on the departure we ran into the 757's wake turbulence. It was a very severe vertical acceleration with a significant roll as well. The RECAT program should be rethought. I would like to see the evidence that a DHC8-D is safe to fly with 2.5 nm separation on a 757. I realize the program includes aircraft handling characteristics along with weight; but do these people realize the Q400 is a truck that can barely get out of its own way? From now on I will insist on more spacing when departing behind a heavy.

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.

Q400 captain reported encountering wake turbulence on climb out from ewr in trail of a B757 that resulted in 'very severe vertical acceleration with a significant roll'. Reporter suggested 'the recat program should be rethought'.