Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Total 8000
Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related
We departed out of ATL behind an A320 and got into some wake turbulence after liftoff. I had the yoke fully left all the way to the stop and held it there for a few seconds and it felt like we still slowly rolled to the right in the wake. Feedback from company: The download for your flight came in and you definitely got into some wake turbulence. At 230 FT AGL while pitched up 17 degrees on a 275 heading at 169 KTS; it appears you hit the preceding traffic's wake for the first time. Roll angle went from zero to 3 degrees to the right in one second. In the next 2 seconds; your aircraft banked to a maximum of 17.5 degrees right while you input 25.75 degrees of left aileron deflection. By comparison; the First Officer hit 25.94 degrees to the stop on the flight control check; so yes; you did have it fully to the left for 1.5 seconds and from the data point at which you first hit the stop for the next 2 seconds; right bank increased from 11.4 degrees to 17.5 degrees. The aircraft then rolled left; reaching a maximum left bank angle of 7.8 degrees 2 seconds after you came out of full left aileron. While the aircraft rolled left; you input a maximum 13.2 degrees of right aileron; so about half input. From there the rolling motions settled down and you got the autopilot on at 754 FT. Vertical G's reached a minimum of 0.84G one second after exiting the second wake encounter and there was a maximum lateral G of 0.094 at approximately the same time; so there was very little side loading. Interestingly the AOA in the first wake with the full left deflection decreased from 8.53 degrees to 4.66 degrees but increased to a maximum 9.67 degrees as you entered the 2nd wake with the left deflection. That's pretty high and usually enough to show a hit of continuous ignition in the -200 but we don't see this parameter in the -900. For comparison; your maximum AOA at rotation was 8.17 degrees. Speed loss was minimal; only about 9 KTS; but that brought you down to V2+4 at 650 FT 4 seconds after the second wake encounter. That may be far more than what you were seeking; but it's interesting to see how the aircraft reacts (or sometimes does not quickly enough) to wake encounters.
CL-65 Captain reported encountering significant wake turbulence in trail of an A320 departing from ATL.