Narrative:

I was heading to ZZZ on the zzzzz transition of the RNAV-xx IAP. I hadn't anticipated the gusty winds to be so strongly favoring runway xy; so when I got the taf; I decided to execute a circling approach to land. I followed the IAP (instrument approach procedure); down to 2;000 feet MSL; breaking out of the clouds somewhere around the FAF. I turned right; entering a left-downwind for runway xy; and realized that a hilltop with a tower was going to be in my path. I applied power to climb over it (almost back into the clouds); and then resumed my descent and turns to landing.hours later; debriefing the situation; I noticed the admonishment I had missed earlier; buried at the end of five lines of textual notes on the approach plate: 'circling na south of rwys xx and xy.' the sectional chart also depicts that rwys xz and xy are rp; but I wasn't relying on my sectional chart during IFR in actual IMC.I suspect the IAP designers intend RNAV-xx circling aircraft to cross the field and enter downwind for runway xy; right-pattern. The hints were there for me to find; but being single-pilot IFR; hand-flying in actual IMC; and relatively novice at it; I erroneously thought that keeping the plane on heading; on altitude; and on speed while following the IAP was more important than reading through five lines of text as each successive line seemed to provide information that was useless to me at that moment. I guess at some point I stopped reading and missed the applicable final line.given that pilots are human; I wonder if it might make sense to make important notes like that more prominent on the approach plate.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 pilot reported that a loss of situational awareness during a circle to land approach resulted in CFTT.

Narrative: I was heading to ZZZ on the ZZZZZ transition of the RNAV-XX IAP. I hadn't anticipated the gusty winds to be so strongly favoring RWY XY; so when I got the TAF; I decided to execute a circling approach to land. I followed the IAP (instrument approach procedure); down to 2;000 feet MSL; breaking out of the clouds somewhere around the FAF. I turned right; entering a left-downwind for RWY XY; and realized that a hilltop with a tower was going to be in my path. I applied power to climb over it (almost back into the clouds); and then resumed my descent and turns to landing.Hours later; debriefing the situation; I noticed the admonishment I had missed earlier; buried at the end of five lines of textual notes on the approach plate: 'Circling NA South of RWYs XX and XY.' The sectional chart also depicts that RWYs XZ and XY are RP; but I wasn't relying on my sectional chart during IFR in actual IMC.I suspect the IAP designers intend RNAV-XX circling aircraft to cross the field and enter downwind for RWY XY; right-pattern. The hints were there for me to find; but being single-pilot IFR; hand-flying in actual IMC; and relatively novice at it; I erroneously thought that keeping the plane on heading; on altitude; and on speed while following the IAP was more important than reading through five lines of text as each successive line seemed to provide information that was useless to me at that moment. I guess at some point I stopped reading and missed the applicable final line.Given that pilots are human; I wonder if it might make sense to make important notes like that more prominent on the approach plate.

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.