The [æ] sound - called the "ash" or the "trap" lexical set - is often problematic...
[æ] tends to be much maligned... but that's because it tends to "flatten" or drift towards being a lax vowel instead of being a tense vowel, which is its rightful heritage. This is most common before nasal consonants and before the K and G sounds. The "Flat-A" sound need not live up (down?) to its name!
