Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Situational Awareness
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Procedure; Human Factors; Environment - Non Weather Related
Doing the Stadium Visual for the first time at night as assigned by Approach; RWY 29 into EWR; winds were 310/16G25; fully configured by GIMEE. I was having difficulty identifying points after the stadium; specifically the cemetery; [and] we flew into the wake of the 737 that landed before us; causing a loss in altitude and an obstacle announcement. We corrected; added power; turned over the railway; climbed and then landed without any further [issues]. There were no queries from ATC at any time during the event. There were other aircraft requesting ILS 22L; but because we had already briefed the approach and programmed it into the box I did not want to change the approach during a critical phase of flight. In hindsight I should have requested the ILS into 22L and dealt with x-wind when Approach originally advised us of the Stadium Vis Approach. I am quite familiar with this; I do it often and it would have been comfortable.
Embraer Regional Jet First Officer reported difficulty navigating the Stadium Visual approach into EWR; and encountered wake turbulence in trail of a B737.