Your buddy was lucky…a couple years ago I was using a Byers Mosquito hammock (with mesh and a zipper) and several of the support cords on one side snapped. They were tangled and were apparently bearing almost all the weight.
The end result was that I was stuck in my hammock with the seam between the hammock bottom and the mesh going right down the middle of my back. I couldn't reach the other edge of the hammock because it was almost 5-feet above me.
After about 10 minutes of struggling the sewn seam between the hammock and the mesh gave way and I fell 18 inches to the soft ground below me.
I cannot imagine waking up to find myself sleeping on mosquito netting 80 feet in the air (even roped in)!
Silly question – are the bugs bad enough that high that you needed to use the netting?