Among the trainee fighter pilots of the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) Introductory Fighter School is a Qantas captain who has taken leave without pay and a former Australian Army soldier.

Another is from Melbourne and a fourth from country Western Australia.

"It's a dream they've been chasing for quite a while," Squadron Leader Grant Taylor said, standing on the tarmac at RAAF Base Darwin as the trainees prepared their jets for takeoff.

"A lot of the pressure is self-induced," he said.

"They start to realise this is the beginning of something that is achievable.

"They're chasing something they have been seeking for what could have been their whole life."

Each year about 1,000 apply to become RAAF pilots. About 20 make the cut and of these only about five are picked for fighter school training.

Only four remain in the current class with graduation 18 months away.

Soon after graduating they could be sent to Iraq where RAAF F/A-18 Hornets have been dropping bombs and flying other kinds of combat missions in the fight against Islamic State (IS).

Sorry, this video has expired GoPro vision aboard a RAAF Hawk fighter jet (Supplied: Nicolas Gonzalez)

"It's highly conceivable these guys will be seeing action possibly within the next 18 to 24 months," Squadron Leader Taylor said.

Some could also stay on as instructors to train the next generation of fighter pilots.

But for the moment they are confined to the training aircraft — two-seater Hawk fighter jets with dual control and an instructor ready to take over in an emergency.

The men who are mostly in their early twenties live and train together as members of 79 Squadron.

Having already sacrificed much to get this far, they know that in order to graduate they will have to sacrifice more.

"The beauty is there doesn't seem to be any mould — they come from a wide and varied background," Squadron Leader Taylor said.

"Primarily they have to have the drive to be a pilot and take whatever steps they need to prepare themselves adequately."

"The RAAF has taught me everything," says Grant Taylor, who joined when he was 17 and 20 years later has risen to the rank of Squadron Leader. ( ABC News: James Purtill )

'You see how they react under pressure'

Based at RAAF Base Pearce in Perth, about two weeks ago the trainees flew to the Northern Territory for Operation Northern Phoenix, which replaced Operation Eastern Phoenix after Cyclone Olwyn damaged the Learmouth base near Exmouth in north-west Western Australia.

Here they have been learning dog-fighting and other skills such as formation flying, where the distance between cockpits is about three metres.

The jets are capable of supersonic speeds of 1,500 kilometres per hour.

Next the trainees will be deployed to RAAF Base Williamstown in New South Wales.

"You do form very close bonds with their squadron mates. You see how they react under pressure," Squadron Leader Taylor said.

"How they are when they're happy and when they're sad.

"You get to know them very intimately as a person as well as a pilot.

"The glamour comes from the equipment you fly — the people themselves are very much salt of the earth."

The RAAF has about 700 pilots and less than 100 of these would be fighter pilots.

Twenty years ago Squadron Leader Taylor himself was a scrawny kid from Adelaide who had never flown a plane and doubted he was good enough to be a fighter pilot.

He joined the RAAF at 17 and began flying at 20.

"I was a little under-confident in my own abilities," he said.

"I always felt like I had to do a little more work.

"I was striving to be one step ahead of where I was supposed to be."

He graduated from the F/A-18 course at 23.

"I was in Iraq at age 25 flying against the Iraqi regime at the time," he said.

"The RAAF has taught me everything."