Circling approach, what lurks beyond the circling area?
Watched another session of poorly flown circling approaches in the sim and the crew, as is common, demonstrated a willingness to stay as close to the runway as possible throughout the maneuver thus making their job commensurately more difficult. It got me thinking, what lurks beyond the circling area? For my type it's Cat C, PANS-OPS so 4.2nm from the runway thresholds. I had a look through 8168 and it wasn't super obvious to me. What is the situation for obstacles beyond 4.2nm or whichever distance for the specific category of aircraft being flown? I would hazard a guess and say that 4.3nm does not mean certain death....
Thanks