B737 Captain reported wake turbulence incidents have become more prevalent and suggested there to be more consideration with wake turbulence recategorization.

ACN 2026165 2023-08 B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model Wake Turbulence Encounters

Part 121

What is ASRS?

The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.

Pilot narrative

Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time); anonymization placeholders are ZZZ, X, Y.

Within the last 5 to 7 years, I have had numerous incidents during both takeoff and approach/landing with wake turbulence. Some incidents have been very pronounced. I truly believe from a safety standpoint that there needs to be more separation on takeoff and approach/landing. I think that within the last 5 to 7 years that the addition of winglets on all aircraft and commercial aircraft becoming more aerodynamically streamlined that the wake turbulence has become more pronounced. I have been flying with the airlines for 25 years and have noticed an increasing amount of wake turbulence encounters. These encounters are becoming more frequent and more pronounced. Some of these encounters require evasive action. This is something that I hope the FAA takes a more investigative approach to. There truly needs to be more separation and scrutiny with aircraft distance on takeoff and approach/landing. With RECAT (re-categorization), I believe these conditions will continue. I always give myself additional separation on takeoff, but I find it more difficult to do on approach to busy airports such as LAX, LGA, DCA, etc... Please consider this something to look into carefully. Thank you for your time and attention.

NASA classification — Anomalies

Inflight Event / Encounter
No Specific Anomaly Occurred

NASA classification — Assessments

Contributing Factors / Situations: Procedure
Primary Problem: Procedure

ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.