I flew on Virgin Atlantic A340-600 to Hong Kong in late November last year. The flap was down when I boarded the aircraft, I think it's about stage 1 of the flaps setting. The aircraft had been parking on the tarmac since it arrived at 7 that morning and my flight was at 3:30pm. The Thai A340-600 parked next to us did not have its flag extended at all.
I was wondering why the flags were extended and were they extended the whole time it was parked on the tarmac?
Here is a photo of the wing when I boarded the aircraft:
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/8...1127144227.jpg