Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General None Reported / Taken
Airport; Human Factors; Weather
The less than optimum approach profile of [our flight to MHRO] was at least partially precipitated by a complete lack of any guidance from the Ops Advisory pages regarding a circling approach.The threats at MHRO include: non English speaking country; below average ATC and ICAO phraseology standardization; single non ILS approach to single runway; high terrain immediately north and east of the runway; shifting winds due to the high terrain rising straight out of the water; a short poor condition runway; cruise ships moored immediately off the approach end of runway 23; no approach or visual guidance to runway 23...feel free to add a few of your own.A tailwind that increased from 9 to 12 knots during descent required using the RNAV approach to runway 5 with a visual circuit to runway 23 in deteriorating weather conditions. The Captain was required with no ops advisory guidance to execute a maneuver that is virtually never trained or practiced in very challenging deteriorating conditions. Adding to the challenge the wind sheared from a headwind to crosswind on final approach. A go around on the base leg of the circle would have been highly inadvisable due to terrain. The shifting wind certainly contributed to the pod clearance issue on touchdown.I have spent very little of my 'career' with [my current airline] but in the short time I have been trained [here] there has been no information (as in zero; zilch; nada) or training or guidance regarding PAN OPS versus TERPS circling criteria. I attempted a mini tutorial on the subject during the descent but the last thing a new Captain needs is a flunky know-it-all First Officer trying to explain that the approach in MHRO is designed by a different regulatory body than the FAA and has different criteria. I know if I were him I would have ignored me. Recurrent training on PAN OPS circling (or any circling for that matter) would have permitted a more 'leisurely' approach if anyone could fly a 'leisurely' circle in a new aircraft to an airport with the dozen or so threats listed above.
A First Officer reported flying a challenging circling approach in marginal weather to MHRO that was complicated by what he felt was inadequate training and substandard ATC procedures.