Narrative:

I was pilot flying on flight to hou. We were cleared to descend via the kiddz 3 arrival; landing runway 31. I believe around the kiddz intersection; we started to encounter mild wake turbulence from company aircraft approximately 10 miles in front of us. I went into the FMC and programmed a .1L offset to stay out of his wake. I did not enter a start or end waypoint for the offset. Sometime later; we received a message stating end of offset. At gluvr intersection; we received a route discontinuity and the aircraft went into the roll mode I believe. My first officer immediately re-entered the arrival with the next intersection; crsty. By that time; ATC gave us a 090 heading and mentioned that we were just south of the course. We informed him we were turning back and we were given direct to villi intersection and resume the arrival. Rest of flight proceeded normally.I failed to enter an end of offset waypoint which led to the aircraft deviating from the assigned route. I've used the offset function many times in the past and honestly don't remember having this ever happening. My first officer was fairly new and had never used the offset function; so he was relying on my entries to be accurate; which they were not. I'll be sure to take my time and understand what I am selecting and executing the next time when making entries into the FMC.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-700 Captain reported a track deviation occurred during a route offset to avoid wake turbulence.

Narrative: I was Pilot Flying on flight to HOU. We were cleared to descend via the KIDDZ 3 Arrival; landing Runway 31. I believe around the KIDDZ intersection; we started to encounter mild wake turbulence from Company aircraft approximately 10 miles in front of us. I went into the FMC and programmed a .1L offset to stay out of his wake. I did not enter a start or end waypoint for the offset. Sometime later; we received a message stating end of offset. At GLUVR intersection; we received a route discontinuity and the aircraft went into the roll mode I believe. My First Officer immediately re-entered the arrival with the next intersection; CRSTY. By that time; ATC gave us a 090 heading and mentioned that we were just south of the course. We informed him we were turning back and we were given direct to VILLI intersection and resume the arrival. Rest of flight proceeded normally.I failed to enter an end of offset waypoint which led to the aircraft deviating from the assigned route. I've used the offset function many times in the past and honestly don't remember having this ever happening. My First Officer was fairly new and had never used the offset function; so he was relying on my entries to be accurate; which they were not. I'll be sure to take my time and understand what I am selecting and executing the next time when making entries into the FMC.

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.