Date: 201701
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: MDW.Airport, IL
Light: Night
Aircraft: Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Climb
Airspace: Class C MDW
ATC / advisory: Tower MDW
Second aircraft: Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain; Pilot Not Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Distraction
Second reporter function: Pilot Flying; First Officer
Anomaly: Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Contributing factors: Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: On departure we were assigned runway heading off 31C. We received several encounters with the wake of the proceeding Company aircraft; nothing major but noticeable. The Company aircraft was assigned a different heading than runway heading; can't remember what it was. I started looking out the window to try and figure out why we kept running into his wake; when we should be diverging. At that time we got a chime for 2000 to 3000 ft level alert. I looked back at the instruments to find the FO had passed through the assigned heading; by almost 70 degrees and was still in a left hand bank and about to miss the level off at 3000 ft. I told him to roll out and level off. He did not respond. I took the aircraft; leveled off and rolled into a right hand bank to get us where we needed to be. I then gave the aircraft back to FO; and we continued without further incident. The FO said he did not understand what the flight director was telling him. I got distracted looking for the preceding aircraft. Not a good combination. We ended up passing thru our assigned heading by 70 degrees.I mentioned the new flight director at gate. FO did not mention he was not familiar; or uncomfortable. So; I didn't think anything of it. FO lost situational awareness due to new flight director.


Second narrative: This aircraft had the new flight director that no longer uses the EASY TO UNDERSTAND chevron to guide the flight course; but now uses the cross hairs FD. It was confusing to figure out if I'm trying to pull the little white box to the cross hairs or bring the cross hairs to the box. So I overshot the heading by 70 degrees while trying to figure this out. ATC didn't say anything and may not have noticed my heading deviation before clearing me on course to the first fix.In a nutshell; I'm flabbergasted the aviation community had taken such a HUGE LEAP BACKWARDS in automation user friendliness and allowed this change. With the old chevron a child could look and see which direction to turn and it also gave the pilot a sense of bank angle. This new system makes us LESS SAFE! As you can see I'm frustrated that company has allowed someone to sell us this inferior product and it WILL cause more mishaps in the future. I will get accustomed to it eventually but at what cost? We had a fabulous FD that worked immensely better than this new update.


Synopsis: Air carrier flight crew reported a track deviation occurred when the First Officer had difficulty interpreting the new flight director's guidance.