The approach speed is just a number but it seems to cause a psychological trauma: what a hundred miles an hour
In my experience it's not the horizontal speed that causes trauma, it's the VERTICAL speed. Power off, the Pitts comes down at about 2500 ft/min (that's about the MAXIMUM descent rate I can get in my 182 in a full emergency descent). The ground comes up FAST and it's very hard not to over-react to that. Eventually the last couple of seconds of flight starts to seem reasonable and you can think about things, but in my experience it takes a while to get to that point.
So yes, the Pitts *is* hard to land. Not impossible, but it takes an excellent instructor and a lot of practice. Unless you're Chuck Yeager (except maybe a bit younger) you won't pick it up by going a dozen times round the pattern. It will a good few hours and quite a few dozen landings.
Flying the Pitts is a wonderful experience. But of course it is ONLY an aerobatic plane. It is a TERRIBLE cross-country tourer! With full tanks it can fly for a little over an hour, and it's pretty uncomfortable. So it all depends on what you want it for.
n5296s