Originally Posted by
Downwind.Maddl-Land
As an aside - Mil ATCOs are not allowed, or taught, to use speed control as a tool when establishing an arrival sequence. Therefore, the 'cockpit checks - report complete" is frequently used as a very coarse technique to get arrivals towards some sort of commonality in approach speeds to maintain a sequence.
Until about 1980, it was prefixed 'reduce to circuit speed and carry out cockpit checks etc...'