My guess is that the doors were either damagedin an incident, or more likely kept opening during flight due to the poor rams SM supply. Regarding the nose retract clearance I have not had any issues. It is clearly not right therefore contact SM for a replacement. This one obviously slipped past there stringent QC process!!

I have nearly finished my VJ and have to say these are FAR from ARTF machines! At the moment I can't see me buying another SM product.