Rob,

You sure can use the 1950 FAUP Nimh cells...I have bought my share and they work great, but your flight time drops to about 3 1/2 - 4 minutes. They make a custom pack that works just fine and is about 1/3 the cost of lipos.

As far as ESC's go, the ones being used with that motor include the Hacker Master 40-B, Kontronik Smile 45-6-12 and Castle Creations Phoenix 45. All three are good ESC's...I have use the Hackers and like them only because I have the program box and can customize settings easier to include advancing the timing one degree at a time for fine tuning to each jet.

Carl