@ RetiredF4
My question was in regard to that rocking and rolling flightphase, where gas thrusters would not jet or later on during reentry no more be used for steering.
I find it hard to estimate at what stage the jets will be applied in ascent and until when in descent, for the SS Orbiter the "blended use" was over a wide regime of altitudes and airspeeds.
Equally hard to say if the aerodynamic controls will be frozen during any portion of the trajectory, if they are, the regimes may again be different for each of the axes.
The feathers - going by Rutanīs own statements - are indeed meant to provide most of the stabilisation function when the air becomes progressively denser, I am not sure if the RCS system would be totally inactive in feathered configuration.
Other than that the aerodynamic active or passive stabilisation functions see transitions from subsonic through transsonic, to supersonic (low supersonic so far for SS2). There is hardly a constant regime, itīs all transients, and maybe thatīs also a factor in the observed oscillations. I can imagine that the oscillations increase with decreasing q while the jets - if applied to complement the aerodynamic controls - are known to behave less predictably when there is still an appreciable effect of the thinning atmosphere (shockwave patterns).
That said, I have only touched on these complex matters and in a more distant past, so I welcome any other views and corrections.