QAVION,
Your answer seemes emminently sensible and I was mindful of it yesterday whilst eating lunch, and looking at the starbord side of an A340.
If I can remember correctly, the door just forward of the wing and the overwing exit both had gutters which sloped down towards the front of the aircraft. I imagine that at a slight nose up attitude (cruise ?) this would have made the gutter close to parallel with the airflow.
The gutter above the aft service door however sloped down towards the rear of the aircraft, thus a small nose up attitude would have increased the amount of drag (negligible I know) from this gutter.
Any thoughts on why this is so?
