A CL601 captain reported wake turbulence from a B737 caused him to deviate 500 ft from assigned alti...

Narrative:

While at FL400 in trail behind a B737 in relatively smooth air we encountered wake turbulence. First roll was to the right with approximately 60 degrees of bank which disengaged the autopilot; mach trim and yaw damper. As the bank increased the nose lowered 5 degrees. I had on passenger in the galley; and she made it back to her seat (no injury) so I had to be gentle in rolling back to level and raising the nose. I had the second in command contact center and he told them of the wake turbulence and the altitude deviation (we lost 500 ft). Center told us to descend maintain FL380. As I leveled the wings we encountered more wake turbulence and we rolled 65 degrees to the left and the nose pitched down 6 degrees as I was trying to hand fly the aircraft without autopilot; yaw damper; or mach trim. I was then able to level wings and we descended to FL380. I was able to engage the autopilot; mach trim; and yaw damper (right afcs system). We checked with the passengers and for any injuries (none) and any aircraft damage (none). I re-engaged the left afcs system and we continued to ZZZ1 without any other problems. We asked center what our distance was behind the B737; it was 10.2 miles. We were indicating mach .79 at FL400 (we were assigned .80 or less). From now on I will take any size aircraft into consideration in regards to wake turbulence.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CL601 Captain reported wake turbulence from a B737 caused him to deviate 500 FT from assigned altitude of FL400 and the aircraft rolled as much as 65 degrees.

Narrative: While at FL400 in trail behind a B737 in relatively smooth air we encountered wake turbulence. First roll was to the right with approximately 60 degrees of bank which disengaged the autopilot; mach trim and yaw damper. As the bank increased the nose lowered 5 degrees. I had on passenger in the galley; and she made it back to her seat (no injury) so I had to be gentle in rolling back to level and raising the nose. I had the Second in Command contact Center and he told them of the wake turbulence and the altitude deviation (we lost 500 FT). Center told us to descend maintain FL380. As I leveled the wings we encountered more wake turbulence and we rolled 65 degrees to the left and the nose pitched down 6 degrees as I was trying to hand fly the aircraft without autopilot; yaw damper; or mach trim. I was then able to level wings and we descended to FL380. I was able to engage the autopilot; mach trim; and yaw damper (right AFCS system). We checked with the passengers and for any injuries (none) and any aircraft damage (none). I re-engaged the left AFCS system and we continued to ZZZ1 without any other problems. We asked Center what our distance was behind the B737; it was 10.2 miles. We were indicating mach .79 at FL400 (we were assigned .80 or less). From now on I will take any size aircraft into consideration in regards to wake turbulence.

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.

Attributes
ACN	832524
Time
Date	200904
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Challenger CL601
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Engineer Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 14000 Flight Crew Type 3000
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter

A CL601 captain reported wake turbulence from a B737 caused him to deviate 500 ft from assigned altitude of FL400 and the aircraft rolled as much as 65 degrees.