Narrative:

Aircraft X was the first of 2 aircraft requesting vectors to final at ZZZ1. I gave him a descent clearance to 4000 but he did not descend very quickly and was still at 7000 in the general area where I thought they should be down to 4000. He kept getting closer and closer to the outer marker and I was unsure what to do and ended up clearing the aircraft for the approach at 4000 which was the mia in that area. I was also having trouble hearing his radio and the pilot had made a request that I could not hear or understand. After several requests to repeat; he finally just said 'never mind' and kept heading for the airport. There was also a tanker in trail looking for the same approach and I had a similar problem with the altitude. The aircraft was at 11000 and I requested him to make a 360 in an attempt to lose some altitude and he helped me by descending 600 feet. I eventually cleared him for the approach at the mia as well. I tried to ask the other controller in the area for assistance but he was busy working his own traffic. I was unsure of what to do with either aircraft because they were so high and I had only vectored to final once before. I have never had any training on vectoring to final at any airport and am not a pilot so when I was told later that you can't clear for the approach if the plane is too high and am supposed to follow a chart buried in erids somewhere; with altitude requirements for certain distances from the airport; I realized I had done just about everything in this scenario wrong. Recommendation; [provide] training on vectoring to final at our airports; especially at airports we don't usually provide that service. Also; it would be nice to have some sort of better training on flying. I don't have an aviation background and don't always know or understand what a plane can or cannot do or why they request certain things. It just adds to the confusion.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Enroute Controller providing vectors for an ILS approaches indicated the aircraft in question were high and controller familiarity with and training for these types of operations were minimal.

Narrative: Aircraft X was the first of 2 aircraft requesting vectors to final at ZZZ1. I gave him a descent clearance to 4000 but he did not descend very quickly and was still at 7000 in the general area where I thought they should be down to 4000. He kept getting closer and closer to the outer marker and I was unsure what to do and ended up clearing the aircraft for the approach at 4000 which was the MIA in that area. I was also having trouble hearing his radio and the pilot had made a request that I could not hear or understand. After several requests to repeat; he finally just said 'never mind' and kept heading for the airport. There was also a tanker in trail looking for the same approach and I had a similar problem with the altitude. The aircraft was at 11000 and I requested him to make a 360 in an attempt to lose some altitude and he helped me by descending 600 feet. I eventually cleared him for the approach at the MIA as well. I tried to ask the other controller in the area for assistance but he was busy working his own traffic. I was unsure of what to do with either aircraft because they were so high and I had only vectored to final once before. I have never had any training on vectoring to final at any airport and am not a pilot so when I was told later that you can't clear for the approach if the plane is too high and am supposed to follow a chart buried in ERIDS somewhere; with altitude requirements for certain distances from the airport; I realized I had done just about everything in this scenario wrong. Recommendation; [provide] training on vectoring to final at our airports; especially at airports we don't usually provide that service. Also; it would be nice to have some sort of better training on flying. I don't have an aviation background and don't always know or understand what a plane can or cannot do or why they request certain things. It just adds to the confusion.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.