Giving the Demo A Go; need some assistance

I recently moved and had made a decision to give X plane a go once I got re-established; that time is now and i have successfully downloaded and installed the demo. However I do have a few questions...

1. I'm a hardware user and have had no issues getting X-plane to recognize my controls and inputs but I am use to working with FSUIPC in the FSX environment. Is XUPIC the X plane equivalent and is it as indispensable as I have found FSUIPC to be? One issue I am having with the control configuration is when setting up a switch X-Plane sees the input but I can't get it to execute any command when that switch or input is released. For example when I configure landing lights to a rocker switch I can flip the switch to the "on" position and the lights will come on but, when i turn the switch off the lights remain on until I toggle the switch a second time.

2. Can you split an axis? What I mean is that the throttle and reversers on X plane are a separate axis is there a way to configure the throttle axis to enter the reverse zone without using a separate reverser axis? I was able to use the "bump" Switch at the end of my Saitek throttle to apply and hold the reverser which works but it's an all or nothing solution.

3. Visibility I set up .25 mile visibility and flew an approach the problem I had was the "wall of fog" continued to regress exactly 1/4 mile in front of my aircraft from horizon to horizon. Is this just how the rendering engine works or am I missing some settings in the environmental menu area?

Perhaps someone could send me a link to a "how to" configure page. My system is a SB 2600K at 5ghz paired with a Nvida 480 GTX, SSD Drives, Mushkin Radioactive Ram not bleeding edge but still very solid and so far i am getting pretty good frames.

Thanks for the assist,

Robert