Narrative:

This course deviation occurred shortly after departing runway 01 at dca via the wyngs departure. I was the pilot monitoring and [the first officer] was the pilot flying. I accepted a clearance from tower to maintain visual separation from the preceding aircraft. Once airborne and after first officer began left turn to northwest (up the river) I focused my attention on the aircraft ahead of us. We had minimum spacing and [encountered] his wake. Once clear of his wake; and sure his flight path was not a conflict to ours; I came inside the cockpit to check the instruments for aircraft position and noticed we were slightly right of course; but did not say anything as first officer had proper correction established. Shortly thereafter; I was given a phone number to call for a possible deviation. I should not have accepted the ATC clearance to maintain visual separation due to the short distance between aircraft. This created a distraction from my primary duties of a pilot monitoring and delayed my cross check to ensure the aircraft was in the proper position.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-800 Captain reported a track deviation occurred departing DCA when they were distracted by a wake turbulence encounter.

Narrative: This course deviation occurred shortly after departing runway 01 at DCA via the WYNGS departure. I was the pilot monitoring and [the First Officer] was the pilot flying. I accepted a clearance from tower to maintain visual separation from the preceding aircraft. Once airborne and after FO began left turn to NW (up the river) I focused my attention on the aircraft ahead of us. We had minimum spacing and [encountered] his wake. Once clear of his wake; and sure his flight path was not a conflict to ours; I came inside the cockpit to check the instruments for aircraft position and noticed we were slightly right of course; but did not say anything as FO had proper correction established. Shortly thereafter; I was given a phone number to call for a possible deviation. I should not have accepted the ATC clearance to maintain visual separation due to the short distance between aircraft. This created a distraction from my primary duties of a pilot monitoring and delayed my cross check to ensure the aircraft was in the proper position.

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.