Hi,
Last week I've created flag
.My techique:
1)Create nurbs square,
2)Select Cloth>create garment
3)Change resolution to 100 in the chanell box.
4)Create cylinder, position it near your flag.
5)Select left side vertices of garment then select cylinder.
6)Select Cloth>constraints>transform constraint
7)Create air field (wind).Set magnitute to 75 or 100, select vertices of your clouth excepting vertices which are assigned to cylinder,constraint them to the air field.
8)Position your field near the begining of your flag and cylinder.
9)Choose show manipulator tool, chnge the wind direction,
set direction keys in frame 0,
10)Go to frame 25(PAL) and change direction again, set key.
11)Continue with keys.
12)Playback animation, enjoy your flag 
Sorry for my english. I'm from Lithuania(Europe).
If u have some interesting Maya tricks this is my e- mail:
va@creator.lt
VAX