Well after posting some photos of the mod on VAF and stirring up an apparent hornet's nest of opinions, one poster suggested a different attachment method for the forward end of the stiffeners. I had actually considered the approach he suggested, but went with the simpler L-bracket design shown in yesterday's log entry. However, after thinking on it for a while I decided to use his approach and make a more triangular gusset.

The tricky part was figuring out what angle to use. That's because the stiffeners are at an angle relative to the centerline of the fuselage and the bulkhead is also at an angle to the bottom skin. I did some head scratching until I came up with the correct equation to figure out the right angle to use.

Here's the new bracket. Although the old one would've been adequate, this one will be more rigid and should eliminate the chance of forming skin cracks at the ends of the stiffeners.