Narrative:

Las tower had a very high number of corporate jets departing from the west side of the airport. With departures going off of 19R and 19L; ATC had their hands full trying to accommodate everyone for takeoff. We waited for about fifteen minutes until we were cleared into position.when we were cleared into position; the controller advised us to keep the preceding airbus in sight; which we acknowledged. We were then cleared for takeoff. At approximately 4;000 MSL; with the autopilot engaged and tracking the RNAV departure in LNAV mode; the airplane started to roll in both directions. When the roll approximated twenty degrees; I disconnected the autopilot and hand flew the airplane through the remainder of the preceding aircraft's wake turbulence.since we were in a -300; without a navigation display; we then realized that we had missed a turn to the next fix; because I was hand-flying the airplane. We were now disoriented as to our position and what fix we needed to fly to next (this can be a big problem in the non-navigation display -300s). The captain was trying to figure out which way we should turn; and to what fix.at that time; I told him to simply advise ATC that we had deviated from the RNAV departure due to wake turbulence. The departure controller acknowledged and gave us navigation instructions. The controller also remarked something similar to; 'yeah; the tower is really pushing them off tight;' indicating that separation was not really that adequate. We proceeded without further problems.I believe the tower controller was making a good-faith effort to expedite the huge number of departures. But; separation was still too close. They need to slow down a little and increase separation. Also; it would help if the corporate jet traffic utilized the nearby airports; to reduce congestion at the main commercial las airport. Frequently; those aircraft are occupied by just a few people; yet they take up just as much airspace as a fully-loaded commercial jet such as ours.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: During a high density departure period; a B737-300 encountered wake turbulence from an Airbus departing immediately prior to their takeoff from LAS. When the flight crew disengaged the auto-pilot to counteract uncommanded rolls they lost situational awareness due to the lack of a Nav Map display and needed to be directed to a down route waypoint by Departure Control.

Narrative: LAS Tower had a very high number of corporate jets departing from the west side of the airport. With departures going off of 19R and 19L; ATC had their hands full trying to accommodate everyone for takeoff. We waited for about fifteen minutes until we were cleared into position.When we were cleared into position; the Controller advised us to keep the preceding Airbus in sight; which we acknowledged. We were then cleared for takeoff. At approximately 4;000 MSL; with the autopilot engaged and tracking the RNAV departure in LNAV mode; the airplane started to roll in both directions. When the roll approximated twenty degrees; I disconnected the autopilot and hand flew the airplane through the remainder of the preceding aircraft's wake turbulence.Since we were in a -300; without a navigation display; we then realized that we had missed a turn to the next fix; because I was hand-flying the airplane. We were now disoriented as to our position and what fix we needed to fly to next (this can be a big problem in the non-NAV display -300s). The Captain was trying to figure out which way we should turn; and to what fix.At that time; I told him to simply advise ATC that we had deviated from the RNAV departure due to wake turbulence. The Departure Controller acknowledged and gave us navigation instructions. The Controller also remarked something similar to; 'Yeah; the Tower is really pushing them off tight;' indicating that separation was not really that adequate. We proceeded without further problems.I believe the Tower Controller was making a good-faith effort to expedite the huge number of departures. But; separation was still too close. They need to slow down a little and increase separation. Also; it would help if the corporate jet traffic utilized the nearby airports; to reduce congestion at the main commercial LAS airport. Frequently; those aircraft are occupied by just a few people; yet they take up just as much airspace as a fully-loaded commercial jet such as ours.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.