loading a Navigation Controller from a button.

Answer 1

navigationController is the stack of viewControllers. You didn't push any controller except root to this stack, so there is no back button in the navigationBar. You can create separate controller to push it into the navigationController's stack. If you son't want to see navigationBar on your first controller's view, just send - (void)setNavigationBarHidden:YES animated:NO to your instance of UINavigationController.