Now I had to get home. I called my mechanic and he said it could be many
things (it wasn't the breaker). He also said I was a complete wimp (he
used a different word that began with a p) if I couldn't land that plane
without the flaps on our 3,500 feet of runway.

I took off and started to ponder the situation:

I would fire that mechanic and never take my aircraft back to him. He talked
you into flying an aircraft with a known problem that was un resolved. You
had no idea why the flaps did not work, the "breaker was not popped" so you
had no idea if the problem was electrical and if it could impact the rest of
the aircrafts electrical system. You knowingly had problems in the traffic
pattern and landing because you did not know the flaps were not working, and
yet you took off on a night cross country in marginal weather to a
relatively short runway based on your mechanic calling you a "wimp".

A Cessna 310 just crashed into a house in Florida with an on board fire
caused by an unknown ignition source.. was it electrical? Who knows, they
may find out or they may not.

Yes the aircraft can be flown safely without the use of flaps. Flaps were
disabled, are they required? The aircraft was certified with flaps. I had a
situation where the flaps failed in the extended position after landing. We
, read mechanic and I, determined it was the flap switch. With the aid of a
trusted mechanic, friend and FAA DAR and with the approval of the home
flight school where I rented the aircraft. we were able to bypass the
switch, and electrically charge the flap motor to raise the flaps. He
promptly issued a ferry permit to allow me to fly back to home station for
repairs to the flap switch with the flap motor circuit breaker pulled,
limited to day VMC, luckily I was alone on the trip as ferry permits
normally are single pilot no pax operations.

JMHO

BT