A hulking 1981 Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter turned up parked on a fenced-off dirt lot in south Las Vegas near Pebble and Bermuda roads on Wednesday, and it isn't just any surplus military aircraft gathering dust. The chopper has shown up repeatedly in videos from YouTube creator HeavyDSparks, whose channel counts nearly 4.7 million subscribers, and its sudden appearance in the valley has raised fresh questions about where it's been and where it's headed next.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, federal records show the helicopter is registered to FLT Services LLC, a company based in Woods Cross, Utah. Utah corporate records list that company as managed by Dave Sparks, who is better known online as HeavyDSparks and who formerly starred in the Discovery Channel reality show Diesel Brothers. Clark County property records cited by the paper show the lot itself is owned by Cougar-Jones Investments, with online records listing Jana Wyson as the company's agent. Neither Sparks nor Wyson responded to comment requests from the Review-Journal, so there's no on-record explanation yet for how the aircraft ended up there or how long it's expected to stay.
A Chopper With a Documented Past
This isn't the Black Hawk's first brush with scrutiny. The same model of aircraft, a 1981 Sikorsky UH-60A, carried journalists and influencers during a 2023 Polaris Camp RZR event at California's Imperial Sand Dunes, according to The Autopian, whose writer took part in one of the rides. The outlet reported that the event ran October 27 and 28 of that year, and the writer's own flight lasted about 15 minutes, in their words, “The Black Hawk ride lasted about 15 minutes.”
The Autopian's reporting also described an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector who contacted its writer on November 24, 2025, while investigating those passenger flights from two years earlier, noting the aircraft was operating under an Experimental certificate that, per the inspector, wasn't supposed to allow passengers aboard. The investigator said the scope of that inquiry was unclear and that the agency was still gathering facts to determine what would happen next. It isn't established whether the helicopter now sitting in Las Vegas is the same individual aircraft from that 2023 event, beyond sharing the same model and its association with HeavyDSparks.
Maintenance Shop Says It Worked on the Aircraft
Thoroughbred Aviation Maintenance, a shop that has publicized work on a Black Hawk tied to the YouTuber, says on its website that it was chosen to return the helicopter to top condition, stating, “Our shop was chosen to get the helicopter back into prime flying condition.” The company separately says it recently performed PMI-1 and PMI-2 inspections on what it calls HeavyD's Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk. A PMI-1 inspection is required every 360 flight hours for a Black Hawk and focuses mainly on flight controls, avionics and electronics, while a PMI-2 is a more invasive check required every 720 hours in which, per the shop, everything is removed from the aircraft down to the frame and inspected. The maintenance company also describes the project as belonging to HeavyDSparks, whom it identifies as known for Diesel Brothers fame.
Who Actually Regulates a Backyard Landing
Amanda Mazzagatti, a spokesperson for Harry Reid International Airport and the Clark County Department of Aviation, told the Review-Journal that flight operations outside the airport fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Administration, and that the airport had no information about the helicopter's arrival or any scheduled departure. The FAA does not prohibit helicopters from landing outside designated airports or heliports altogether, but FAA spokesperson Steve Kulm said pilots must still adhere to local takeoff and landing regulations and avoid posing a hazard to people or property on the landing surface.
Kulm also said the FAA does not require notification for temporary landing sites under certain conditions. Per agency guidance, a site qualifies as intermittent use, and therefore needs no advance notice, when it's used no more than three days in any one week and sees no more than 10 takeoffs and landings in any single day. Whether the south Las Vegas lot meets those conditions, or whether the aircraft actually flew in or out of the property at all, isn't established by the available evidence.
A Pricey Piece of Surplus Hardware
In previous videos, Sparks has said he purchased the helicopter at a military auction, though the exact price and acquisition date aren't confirmed. The going rate for these aircraft isn't cheap: Black Hawk helicopters sold through GSA auctions have fetched closing bids ranging from more than $900,000 to more than $2.5 million this year, based on figures cited by the Review-Journal from GSA auction listings. For now, how this particular aircraft landed on a dirt lot near Pebble and Bermuda roads, and what comes next for it, remains an open question that neither Sparks nor the property's listed agent has answered.
