ORIGINAL: sprior
You should see some of the awkward positions I've had to operate in
Bet you can't beat laying under an SLBM replacing a limit switch with the North Atlantic x inches below your back through the pressure hull and 16 tons of solid propellant inches from your face.
Possibly not, in no particular order...
Replacing a switch in a VC-10 K3, in the area between the stubwings. There's no floor, just a fuselage stringer on one side and a beam about three feet away where you can just about get your other foot. In the surrounding area are all the fuel, air and hydraulic feeds and the throttle cables. So stepping on anything else is verboten. The addition of Skydrol fumes are the final bonus to the whole situation [:(]
Testing a HDU air motor regulator was another fun one. To test the top limit switch we had to disable the lower limit switch, the only way to do that was via a manual switch. The switch was above the motor turbine and the only way to reach it was to jam your head and arm through the tiny gap between the turbine and fuselage. Pull the switch and then bail out quick, cos if the switch doesn't work there's about half a second before the turbine explodes. [X(]
Plenty of experience inside various engine cowlings of recently landed jets in the desert, the OAT of 50C+ felt almost cold at times [:D]