At 19:32 30 January 2009, Darryl Ramm wrote:

Lower cost and more
interesting sports like hang gliding and paragliding that have been
particularly strong in the USA.

Another point is competition from power flying, which is a much more
attractive proposition in the US. I believe I'm correct in thinking that
flying power in most of Europe is much more expensive (and more highly
restricted) than in the US.

Jim Beckman