Not surprised of the results here. IS and Nikon's VR are designed for certain frequencies and essentially hand tremor. They also don't work very well on tripods and not all the lenses perform equally for stabilization.
From Ken Rockwell (I don't usually go to his site, but he had some good points about Image Stabilization)
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/image-stabilization.htm
Frequency Ranges and Applications
Vibration, in engineering terms, is measured frequency and amplitude. VR and IS systems are able to handle vibrations only in certain ranges. The frequency range of interest is about 0.3 Hz to 30 Hz.
IS and VR systems are designed to ignore very low frequencies of vibration because these systems would mistake panning or reframing for vibration, and would try to work against us as we tried to shoot.
Frequencies higher than about 30 Hz aren't particularly important. Our muscles don't wiggle faster than 30 Hz, and external vibrations at higher frequencies are filtered by the combination of our bodies and the mass of the camera.
Never place your camera directly against something that's vibrating; hold it in your hands to prevent the highest frequencies from being transmitted to your camera.
Above a certain amplitude range (strength of vibration), the mechanics of the system can't move far enough to counter really huge whoop-de-doos, for instance, if you're shooting from a moving platform like the back of a horse.
Aircraft
VR systems are for eliminating hand tremor, not for shooting from the backs of moving cars or out of helicopters. These much larger vibrations usually require different kinds of external gyro stabilizers.
When shooting from aircraft, never brace a camera against the door or any other part of an aircraft. Instead, hold the camera in your hands and sit straight up with your shoulders away from a seat, so your body can absorb as much of the vibration and buffeting a possible.
As with everything, try your equipment in your situation and see what looks best. When I've shot from open windows of small aircraft, Nikon's VR system couldn't handle it, which makes sense, because it's not designed for that.
Failures
VR and IS systems can break in weird ways. If they do, turn them off until you get it fixed.
My first Canon 28-135mm IS lens had a subtly defective IS system. It was devilishly defective in such a way that it worked great at slow speeds, but made daylight shots at faster speeds worse!
I sent it to Canon under warranty, and Canon quickly replaced the IS system, and it came back perfect.
This is why I always test my lenses as they arrive. Shoot with and without VR or IS, and learn at what speeds and focal lengths you get perfect results. This way you can shoot accordingly in the field, or catch the rare factory defect.
No VR or IS system even makes things worse, unless it's broken. I've never had a problem even if I've left VR ON on a tripod.
