Edit: Here’s a compilation of all the Cleveland bath gags.
Once I got the first set of rails mounted, it was a bit easier since I could anchor them to that. But the first set, whew, it was all I could do to hang onto my tools and/or parts. This is despite anchoring my backpack full of tools/materials. Backpack was just not reachable when I was doing the bottom and middle mounts.
Only got one rail (5 panels) installed today. Spent a lot of time going up/down retrieving dropped tools, getting random stuff I didn’t think I’d need, and struggling to not fall off the roof myself. I get vertigo easily, so this is proving to be more challenging than I thought. Two more rails (10 panels) left to install, but that’s a tomorrow problem.
Yes, they’re intentionally off-center on the mounts for spacing reasons. Also, yes, I blurred out my house because apparently you can just feed these to a tool that can identify my location. God I hate the internet.
Not OP, but that’s how it is typically done. The footing bracket might have a seal on it and the fastener should have another so everything gets watertight. I think there are newer mounting styles that try not to put holes in the roof, but I am unsure how they work. Very much depends on the roof type too.