Narrative:

Descent through 15;000 flight crew knew that runway 31 would be in use. This is the first time arriving to bro in runway 31 configuration. Restricted airspace (mexico) is nearby. Crew briefed many strategies to mitigate the airspace issue and expected visual approach. We briefed specifically where and when we will configure and to what extent we will configure when. Aircraft descending through 7;000. We expected the visual approach. They expected us to fly the localizer B/C approach to 31. Of course we cannot do B/C approaches so there was a bit of a scramble to determine an acceptable approach. Aircrew and ATC decided on the VOR only alpha approach circle to 31. Direct clearance was given to chico - of note; not an IAF. Final approach altitude inbound was 900 until after the FAF then it dropped down to 540.aircraft was not fully configured prior to chico which is neither an IAF nor FAF and aircraft not fully configured 100 prior to the final approach altitude of 900 (which we cannot fly). The 1;000 ft gear horn went off and we configured 7nm from the field at that time. We continued the approach - in hind sight we should have discontinued the approach and either re-fly the approach no lower than 1;022 AGL or flown the ILS 13 circle 31.[contributing factors]1) first real circling approach ever2) recall of the lowest allowable altitude on circling approach did not happen 3) the location of chico and the final approach altitude of 900 (which we cannot fly) require a significant change to the configuration game plan. Configuration was emphatically addressed in the brief but the new VOR-a approach and just finding the chico intersection in the FMS (it's in the arc initial) made connecting the dots difficult.well- there was a beautiful localizer B/C approach in use at the time which [another aircraft] was using right behind us. We decided to not allow shooting B/C approaches. The published altitude minimums on nearly every portion of the VOR-a we cannot fly - I have discussed all of this with our flight ops supervisor and have been debriefed (counseled) with him. He agrees this was a very difficult position to be in with 1;600 ft overcast cig.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier Captain reported company restrictions to approaches at BRO airport offer no options when weather is present.

Narrative: Descent through 15;000 flight crew knew that RWY 31 would be in use. This is the first time arriving to BRO in RWY 31 configuration. Restricted airspace (Mexico) is nearby. Crew briefed many strategies to mitigate the airspace issue and expected visual approach. We briefed specifically where and when we will configure and to what extent we will configure when. Aircraft descending through 7;000. We expected the visual approach. They expected us to fly the LOC B/C approach to 31. Of course we cannot do B/C approaches so there was a bit of a scramble to determine an acceptable approach. Aircrew and ATC decided on the VOR only Alpha approach circle to 31. Direct clearance was given to CHICO - of note; not an IAF. Final approach altitude inbound was 900 until after the FAF then it dropped down to 540.Aircraft was not fully configured prior to CHICO which is neither an IAF nor FAF and aircraft not fully configured 100 prior to the final approach altitude of 900 (which we cannot fly). The 1;000 ft gear horn went off and we configured 7nm from the field at that time. We continued the approach - in hind sight we should have discontinued the approach and either re-fly the approach no lower than 1;022 AGL or flown the ILS 13 circle 31.[Contributing factors]1) First real circling approach ever2) Recall of the lowest allowable altitude on circling approach did not happen 3) The location of CHICO and the final approach altitude of 900 (which we cannot fly) require a significant change to the configuration game plan. Configuration was emphatically addressed in the brief but the new VOR-A approach and just finding the CHICO intersection in the FMS (it's in the ARC initial) made connecting the dots difficult.Well- there was a beautiful LOC B/C approach in use at the time which [another aircraft] was using right behind us. We decided to not allow shooting B/C approaches. The published altitude minimums on nearly every portion of the VOR-A we cannot fly - I have discussed all of this with our flight ops supervisor and have been debriefed (counseled) with him. He agrees this was a very difficult position to be in with 1;600 ft overcast CIG.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.