Yupp, cordless drill and jigsaw for me, and I did use my hacksaw a few times for the test aluminum I was messing with. I actually used it again last night for my heatsink for the unit.
Yes, the Air Master does have reverse/brakes, and you can even say how strong you want the brakes. Mine are set to 0, but they go from 0 to 100 in some increments. Check manuals here -
http://www.sky-technology.net/home.htm. That's what I did to confirm I could do what I wanted with the air controller.
No popping that thing open either, at least let me get some runs on it with LiPos before I ruin it!!