Xcode breakthroughs!
Today I made good progress while coding during lunch break...in the park...80 degrees ...yeah, can't get much better than this.
But, back on course. I figured out how to set up my views in landscape mode and eliminate the buttons from the initial menu from the game view.
Hint: give the view of the menu view controller the value of the view of the game view controller.That is, self.view=gameviewcontroller.view, while in the 'New Game' button push method of the main menu view controller.
The menu view controller, if you want the game to be in landscape mode, should have the included method ShouldAutoRotate... set to one of the Landscape values.
That's it, easy as 3.14 !