Flight Crew Last 90 Days 187
Distraction
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Procedure; Environment - Non Weather Related
SCT Approach vectored us from a base leg onto final within 1.5 miles of a heavy B777. We got cleared for the visual approach and started to maneuver for spacing by slowing with flaps 10 and s-turns. Not long after turning onto final; we got into the wake turbulence. The aircraft banked both left and right as we fought to get out of the turbulence. ATC sent us to Tower. I put in the frequency and believed to have switched to Tower. We maneuvered the aircraft upwind and high just as we started to feel the burble of more turbulence. The sun was low in the sky directly in our line of sight. This made the runway and the preceding aircraft difficult to see. We continued down the flight path fully configured and with the checklist complete. As we got below 1;000 FT; we viewed a green light from the Tower and questioned whether we were cleared to land. I thought we had been but; as we started to feel possible turbulence again; we continued to focus our efforts to landing the aircraft as we were close to the ground. Once we landed; we turned off and contacted Ground. They queried us as to whether we saw the green light and we confirmed that we had seen it. We then taxied to the gate for parking. ATC should have let us know that the heavy was already at approach speed at 15 miles out as he positioned us behind him. ATC vectored us to final too early and put us too close to a heavy aircraft. As a crew; we should have gotten vectored back around instead of continuing on the approach. The distraction of the wake turbulence; low sun; and maneuvering kept our focus from verifying the communication with Tower.
[Narrative contained no additional information.]
B737-700 Captain reported wake vortex encounter that provided enough distraction Tower was not called for landing clearance.