They also had longer spans and narrower chords, with Frise-type leading edges for balancing. They filled the whole trailing edges of the outer wings, their inner sections deflecting more than the outer parts. These aileron modifications were a response to the heavy stick forces encountered with the prototype. The fuselage of the R-17 had an elliptical cross-section. The pilot sat just ahead of the leading edge in an open cockpit which had a removable cover with built-in windscreen. Raised immediately behind to provide a headrest, the fuselage fell away aft. In contrast the R-17g had a Rubik-R-22S fuselage with a cockpit covered by a bubble canopy, behind which the upper fuselage ran horizontally rearwards. As a result the cross-section became increasingly flattened at the top. Both variants landed on a semi-recessed monowheel under the wing at about one-third chord, assisted by a rubber-sprung skid ahead of it to the nose and a small tail skid. They also had very similar tails, with slightly sloped, straight-edged fins and nearly quadrantal rudders. Narrow, parallel chord tailplanes were mounted just above the fuselage and braced from below by a single strut on each side. The elevators were tapered and rounded toward the tips. One difference was a small elevator trim tab added on the starboard side on the R-17b. The horizontal tails could folded upwards for easier transport.