[eluser]conord[/eluser]
Yep.
So I gather from these replies that my model(s) should have access to the full CI instance in $this - if called directly from a controller, correct? So if $this->db was auto-loaded, it should be available to MY_Model and to everything that extends it.
That's the way I'd understand it to work and how all the examples I've looked at so far show.