Ladder to brush off slider before retracting

My home-built slide-out cover is pretty light, but I do need the ladder to put it on and remove it. I'd like the automatic one, but a few things keep me from getting one. One is the additional weight mentioned by Offgrid. The second is the cost. I just dropped a hefty sum for the LiFePO4 upgrade which included not only the battery, but the DC to DC charger and the wiring to make it all work plus a solar panel. I'm not ready to spend the money needed to put one of the automatic toppers on yet. A third is the additional drag from something sticking out into the air stream. The third may or may not be significant, but it can't help.

I am not automatically fearful of ladders. I have at least once gone up a 40' ladder, and I used a 32' ladder many times. That said, those telescoping things just do not give me confidence.

Hmmm, based on this unscientific poll there is a large cohort of rPod owners who are stubborn old farts who have taken serious falls. Now, what does that tell us? 

Oh, heck, I took a dive off a scaffold when one of the planks broke; a fall of only about 6', not quite enough to get ready for a landing.  Broke my arm and my face.  $500K in med bills and I'm still paying a high price 13 years later.  I was just about to enter geezerdom when I did it.