Narrative:

I was the PNF and; at the gate; briefed the departure off of runway 25L in lebl. The departure requires an 80 degree turn after takeoff for noise abatement. Company [procedure] mandates that the first turn airborne be hand-flown before engaging the autopilot. We departed behind a heavy A340. At 500 feet; the first officer requested the heading change. I delayed responding to his request because of two factors: I felt we were too slow to initiate that turn as we were very heavy; and; as we initially climbed; we had encountered turbulence; thus at our heavy weight and slow speed wanted to make sure that we would have adequate speed and altitude before continuing the turn.[suggest] choosing a different runway. Take the full 2 minutes behind a departing heavy.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B767-300ER Captain reported deviating from cleared departure track at LEBL because of lingering wake turbulence.

Narrative: I was the PNF and; at the gate; briefed the departure off of runway 25L in LEBL. The departure requires an 80 degree turn after takeoff for noise abatement. Company [procedure] mandates that the first turn airborne be hand-flown before engaging the autopilot. We departed behind a Heavy A340. At 500 feet; the first officer requested the heading change. I delayed responding to his request because of two factors: I felt we were too slow to initiate that turn as we were very heavy; and; as we initially climbed; we had encountered turbulence; thus at our heavy weight and slow speed wanted to make sure that we would have adequate speed and altitude before continuing the turn.[Suggest] choosing a different runway. Take the full 2 minutes behind a departing heavy.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.