Narrative:

We leveled off at FL370 and had FL410 on request with ATC. He told us it was going to be a few minutes until a B757 passed us at FL390. I decided to keep the speed back to expedite the jet passing in front of us. We got a climb clearance to FL410 and while climbing through FL380 at .65 mach the airplane violently rolled 45 degrees to the right. The autopilot and yaw damper both disengaged. I complied with the memory item checklist for autopilot malfunction. My sic got on the yoke first and began the corrective action while I assisted; then almost instantly; there was a violent roll to the left at a bank angle of 35 degrees. I was able to regain control of the airplane after we climbed through the wake of the B757. After level off I gave control of the plane to my sic; instructing him to keep the speed less than .65 mach while I called [operations]. We decided that although the plane was flying normally; there were no vibrations; and all systems were functioning; that we should take the airplane to a service center to have a severe turbulence inspection done to be safe. I kept the speed less than .65 mach and less than 200 KIAS when we transitioned to airspeed; and the bank angle less than 15 degrees at all times. We landed safely without incident. Tower put the crash; fire; and rescue on alert 1 but did not roll the trucks. On post flight inspection; no defects were noted. Perhaps we shouldn't be climbing through the wake of a B757. Provide greater separation before issuing the climb; or a 20 degree vector for the climb would have avoided this incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CE560XL Captain reported encountering significant wake turbulence from a B757 while they were climbing through FL380. After conferring with operations; the decision was made to divert to a service center for inspection.

Narrative: We leveled off at FL370 and had FL410 on request with ATC. He told us it was going to be a few minutes until a B757 passed us at FL390. I decided to keep the speed back to expedite the jet passing in front of us. We got a climb clearance to FL410 and while climbing through FL380 at .65 Mach the airplane violently rolled 45 degrees to the right. The autopilot and yaw damper both disengaged. I complied with the memory item checklist for autopilot malfunction. My SIC got on the yoke first and began the corrective action while I assisted; then almost instantly; there was a violent roll to the left at a bank angle of 35 degrees. I was able to regain control of the airplane after we climbed through the wake of the B757. After level off I gave control of the plane to my SIC; instructing him to keep the speed less than .65 Mach while I called [operations]. We decided that although the plane was flying normally; there were no vibrations; and all systems were functioning; that we should take the airplane to a service center to have a severe turbulence inspection done to be safe. I kept the speed less than .65 Mach and less than 200 KIAS when we transitioned to airspeed; and the bank angle less than 15 degrees at all times. We landed safely without incident. Tower put the Crash; Fire; and Rescue on Alert 1 but did not roll the trucks. On post flight inspection; no defects were noted. Perhaps we shouldn't be climbing through the wake of a B757. Provide greater separation before issuing the climb; or a 20 degree vector for the climb would have avoided this incident.

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.