Jim,
There will be several experts that will be here to help you soon. Probably will need to know the engine type.
My 3.5 cents(inflation)!
A friend of mine in the tractor portion of my life would have given these instructions:
Pull the engine, get it on the appropriate engine stand, turn the pan to the upright position, clean things up, remove the old pan, more cleaning, new gaskets and seals as required. Good time to examine the rotating assembly. Install clean pan with gaskets. re-install the engine. life is good! (or some variation of this) Now that was tractor engine maybe a little easier to remove the engine but the thought of the process was to be able to get the engine in a good position to do the work to make the work as leak free as possible.
Regards,
Chris and Cheryl