Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 28; Flight Crew Total 358; Flight Crew Type 357
Situational Awareness
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Chart Or Publication
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.
C172 pilot reported that a loss of situational awareness during a circle to land approach resulted in CFTT.