B737-700 captain reported a track deviation occurred when he turned to avoid visible indications of ...

Attributes
ACN	1637007
Time
Date	201904
Place
Locale Reference	ZDV.ARTCC
State Reference	CO
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 446 Flight Crew Type 11000
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Narrative:

Climbing through FL380; we observed significant wing tip vortices and wake turbulence approaching our flight path. Anticipating possible aircraft upset I quickly turned off course to avoid; but did not have time to notify ATC until after initiating the turn. ATC called us to inquire about the turn as we were about to notify them. We turned back on course after avoiding the wake turbulence.initially we believed we were going to avoid the wake turbulence; but it quickly moved towards our flight path. I should have been more conservative and requested a turn from ATC earlier to avoid even the possibility of encountering the wake turbulence.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-700 Captain reported a track deviation occurred when he turned to avoid visible indications of wake turbulence; which did not allow enough time to coordinate with ATC.

Narrative: Climbing through FL380; we observed significant wing tip vortices and wake turbulence approaching our flight path. Anticipating possible aircraft upset I quickly turned off course to avoid; but did not have time to notify ATC until after initiating the turn. ATC called us to inquire about the turn as we were about to notify them. We turned back on course after avoiding the wake turbulence.Initially we believed we were going to avoid the wake turbulence; but it quickly moved towards our flight path. I should have been more conservative and requested a turn from ATC earlier to avoid even the possibility of encountering the wake turbulence.

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.

B737-700 captain reported a track deviation occurred when he turned to avoid visible indications of wake turbulence; which did not allow enough time to coordinate with ATC.